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INTRODUCTION TO HYDROELECTRIC POWER 

PLANT

  The Hydroelectric power plant is a bladeless centripetal flow turbine patented by Nikola Tesla in

1913.

  It is referred to as a bladeless turbine because it uses the boundary layer effect and not a fluid

impinging upon the blades as in a conventional turbine.

  The Hydroelectric power plant is also known as the boundary layer turbine, cohesion-type turbine,

and Prandtl layer turbine (after Ludwig Prandtl).

  Bioengineering researchers have referred to it as a multiple disk  centrifugal pump. One of Tesla’s

desires for implementation of this turbine was for geothermal power, which was described in "Our 

Future Motive Power".

FIG. SHOWING THE CONSTRUCTION AND ACTUAL MODEL OF

HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT

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DESCRIPTION OF HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT

  A Hydroelectric power plant consists of a set of smooth disks, with nozzles applying a moving gas

to the edge of the disk.

  The gases drag on the disk by means of viscosity and the adhesion of the surface layer of the gas.

  As the gas slows and adds energy to the disks, it spirals in to the center exhaust. Since the rotor 

has no projections, it is very sturdy.

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WORKING PRINCIPAL OF HYDROELECTRIC POWER

PLANT:-

  In the Hydroelectric power plant, the fuel is combusted prior to entering the main

chamber. The gases speed at supersonic velocity into the perimeter of chamber where they

 pass between closely packed parallel discs, causing the disks to turn. The exhausting gases

exit through the center of the chamber.

 The turbine does not have any blades, but is composed of extremely smooth disks -- thesmoother the better. You would think that the gases would glance right by the smooth surface,

 but this is not the case.

  Wind tunnel studies from airplane wings show that the first layer of air molecules on the

surface are tightly joined to it. The next layer of air molecules is not as tightly bound, but

nonetheless still have some binding properties. The next layer is less tightly bound still, and

so forth. As the gasses fly by, they interact with these molecules in a manner that might be

compared to thrust bearings in concentric cylinders: twice the rotation on the outside race is

converted into one rotation on the inside.

  It works on a principle opposite the dimples on a golf ball. The indentations on the surface of 

the ball create turbulence on the surface of the ball, and this actually helps the ball fly further 

through the air, packing less resistance.

The Tesla discs, on the other hand, should be as smooth as possible. And Tesla did not invent

the bladeless turbine concept. It was invented in Europe in 1832. Tesla refined the design and

introduced pulsed detonation, which is not feasible in bladed turbines.