The Simulation of Convective Heat Transfer in a Tesla Turbine Gap

Abstract

Due to its unique design and large rotor surface, the Tesla turbine is predestined for heat transfer processes. To calculate the heat transfer, a simple steady state model based on the Blasius boundary layer analogy was developed and compared to a numerical simulation. It could have been shown, that the model fits the numerical simulation well for the surface heat flux and the Nusselt number. For the heat transfer coefficient, the simplified model needs a refinement due to a different calculation approach between the numerical simulation and the analytic solution. Furthermore, it could be shown, that the simplified model can only be applied if the turbine inlet velocity is in the range of the disk velocity. Otherwise a flow channel develops which is not covered by the simplified model.