As the picture above shows, the turbine rotor is simply a stack of flat discs with ported centres, fixed to a shaft. Pressure seals such as the labryrinth seals shown above are essential (as I found out the hard way). The picture also shows the use of end discs as pressure seals, running close to the housing.Disc spacing and outer diameter to inner diameter are important parameters – a paper that I have read suggests the following formula for disc spacing:
Pi = (disc spacing) x square root of (angular velocity / kinematic viscosity)










