Tesla Turbine & Solar

[iFred]

Check this out! Tesla Turbine Builders Club uses solar arrays and low speed high torque tesla turbines to produce power to turn generators.

http://phoenixnavigation.com/ptbc/articles/ptbc45.htm

Main site

http://phoenixnavigation.com/ptbc/toc.htm

For even cooler idea's and generators check this site out!

http://www.stanford.edu/~hydrobay/lookat/tt.html

I never really thought about a tesla turbine would have high horsepower and low speed, and when incorporated with a solar array, thats just toooo good to pass up. has anyone tried this?

Comments? Suggestions?

 

[Walt]

ifred

That is a very interesting site. It is a work in progress, as this site is. I like the open source format. There is a lot of good information and you can see how their system has evolved.

Thanks for the heads up.

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

I never really thought about a tesla turbine would have high horsepower and low speed, and when incorporated with a solar array, thats just toooo good to pass up. has anyone tried this?

Power-to-weight ratio yes.  But low speed (or high torque)?  Last I heard a Tesla turbine has extremely high speed and pretty low torque.  (Even one of those web pages is talking 2,000 to 10,000 RPM, which seems a bit low for a Tesla to me.)

(Did I miss something in one of the articles?  Other than the low-speed experiment with water to try to track the flow streamlines?)

It's hard to get torque when you're depending entirely on friction of a fluid running along a flat surface to connect the working fluid to the turbine.  Teslas run at extreme speed and need little torque to achieve high horsepower.

The reason they're using Teslas is that they're using the solar collector as a boiler.  Decently efficient tesla turbines are a snap to construct compared to a vane-style turbine or a piston-style steam engine.  They're also small and light.

A high-speed low-torque prime mover makes for a small, cheap, light high-frequency generator, too.

[iFred]

They appear to have modified the internal tesla turbine with blades and spacing to produce a decent rpm. Most motors and generators are running in the 2000 rpm range, so want i find interesting is if this could also be used to run a 3 phase induction motor at 10% it's rating, or even put a dual rotor or conversion on the turbine and see what happens, not to mention a car altinator..ummm.. they have suggested that with the modificatons in the 2000-5000 rpm range your getting around 4-8 HP and with a 6inch turbine, which is just about right on for a nice dual rotor generator or so.. I think I want to play with this and see what happens come summer time..

[monte350c]

Hi Fred,

Thanks for the links!

I came across that phoenixnavigation site about 1 year ago, read it, and promptly forgot all about it! Looks like there's some pretty neat stuff going on there.

I have been kicking around the idea of building some kind of solar concentrator using a parabolic trough and that solar reflective film you see advertised on the web. Either a trough, or a large strip-dish type concentrator.

As mentioned elsewhere in this post the Tesla turbine is attractive for cost and ease of manufacture and combined with a homebrew alternator designed for high rpm the plan could have some real benefits.

Ted.

[Kwazai]

they are definitely making it happen,some of the other pages were related to flash stem to drive a tesla turbine and blade spacings for steam (different for air). I had read some stuff previously that said a minimum of 60 psi, but one of the articles looked like the guy was getting sluggish performance at 30-40psi steam. a lot of stuff in there related to collector dishes and troughs too.

cool sites, thanks.

Mike

[iFred]

I have an old 6 ft sat dish, I wonder if it's big enough to play with.. most of what they start with is like 10-12ft. I was thinking broken mirror pieces cemented and orientated correctly might do it, but I could be totally wrong. any ideas on mounting mirrors on a dish? The troughs look more appealing from a simple point of construction and materials needed. they suggested temps 300-400f for something like 15ft long.

[iFred]

I just went searching through the net for info on solar reflective film, when you mentioned it I thought it might be a doable simple solution, however, they are not totally reflective, thus it would produce more loss. however it got me thinking about tin foil in a trough design or on a dish in segments perhaps.

[monte350c]

Hi Fred,

Here is a link to the stuff I was talking about. They claim 95% reflective for heat.

It could save a bunch of time compared to the bits and pieces of mirror method - not to mention it's not fragile either!

http://www.cleardomesolar.com/

btw I have not tried their product yet but it looks good.

more reading:

http://www.washingtonfreepress.org//11/Solar.html

Have Fun!

Ted.

[nwilke]

     tesla turbines are definately sweet. you can get low rpm and high torque by using larger disk diameters. tesla used 60 inch disks to produce 675 hp (503 kw). AS THE HORSEPOWER DOUBLES, THE TORQUE QUADRUPLES!

     proper inlet nozzle design and adequate steam pressure can help achieve supersonic inlet speeds. the nozzle should be shaped like <> (with the inlet on the left). the expanding section will decrease pressure/temperature. the contracting section will funnel the steam to maximize pressure/speed.

     i like parabolic dishes better than troughs because they produce higher temperatures. they are a little more difficult to manufacture, and they require a 2 axis mount/tracking system (troughs only NEED one, but benefit 10% more power with a 2 axis system). i'll make the dishes with a concrete mold and fiberglass pour. i'll line them with tiny mirrors (to get smaller focus = higher temp = higher efficiency) or i can use long mylar triangles. i'll heat a thick thermal fluid with a high vaporization temperature, and then pump it to a concrete/stone/insulation thermal reservoir. the high vaporization temperature of the thermal fluid means a) it retains heat better b) i don't need a high-pressure reservoir. i'll use a heat exchanger on the thermal reservoir to vaporize water and turn large-diameter tesla turbines. i'll probably make my own generators if i can't find some suited to the rpm of the turbines (helps efficiency if the two are well-matched). stirling engines will produce power from heat recovery.

trying to find some business loans......trying to decentralize the grid......