Virtually silent,bladeless wind turbines on the way ?

[Gotwind Ben]

Based on the old Tesla steam turbine, I'm not 100% convinced..



http://www.gizmag.com/bladeless-wind-turbines/14977/

Yea, I question this a bit. States, "The smallest unit would be likely to produce about 5kW at 15 knots." A quick reference check using a CP of 0.40 and rounding 15 knots down to 17mph suggests a "swept area" of 500 square feet, roughly 22 feet high and wide. That is a very large superstructure to go hanging up in the air for 5kW. A traditional 25 foot radius turbine would have a difficult time producing 5kWh in a 17mph wind, and I suspect this turbine would as well.

I went and did some reading up on the "Tesla turbine" as I was unfamiliar with it. Very interesting indeed. I am not sure it is applicable to modification for wind use, but it would seem to be an interesting choice for low pressure steam. It also appears to have a very high TSR (in this case Edge Speed Ratio may be more accurate). There are a bunch of youtube videos, and in one of them a tach showed 17k RPM with ~40 PSI of compressed air! I am not exactly sure how that works out in mph or TSR, but it was pretty impressive hearing it "spool up".

Interesting Find.

Fish

That looks just like the heater I had in my old Ford Cortina! :D

Shawn,

I understand your thought, but you should really look at the Tesla Turbine carefully prior to passing judgment. Do I think it is a viable wind solution? I have serious reservations there, but the Tesla Turbine is a very cool concept. 17k RPM with 45 PSI is pretty impressive. Serious critics of it admit at LOW LOAD the turbine efficiency approaches 95% (NOT overall efficiency). As the load increases the efficiency decreases sharply. I doubt seriously that this is a viable wind turbine, but Tesla's design is actually very cool. (I am repeating myself ;-) Happens when you get old)

Fish