Diseño y construcción de un banco de pruebas para medir las potencias de entrada y salida de una turbina tesla para el laboratorio de Turbomaquinaria de la Facultad de Mecánica

Abstract

This project arose from the need of students in the Mechanical Engineering faculty to have a test bench to analyze the conversion of hydraulic energy into mechanical energy and understand the underlying physical principles of a Tesla turbine. Therefore, the objective of this research was to design and construct a test bench to measure the input and output powers of a Tesla turbine while varying the operating conditions for the Turbomachinery laboratory of the Mechanical Engineering faculty. The test bench implementation followed the VDI 2221 methodology, which generated a list of requirements to meet the student's needs. Regarding the design of the hydraulic system, it began with the pump selection, followed by the creation of the turbine, where the characteristics of the discs were established. Data extraction was performed using flow, pressure, angular velocity, voltage, and current sensors connected to a Nextion display. The structure was analyzed and validated using ANSYS and SAP 2000 software. Experimental tests were conducted at different degrees of valve opening to control the flow rate and analyze the integrity of each element during system operation to validate the prototype. The sensor error ranges were also evaluated by comparing them with analog instruments. It was concluded that the turbine achieves an efficiency of 33% at 30.16 rad/s under favorable conditions and at the maximum valve opening range, with a minimum flow rate of 17 LPM for operation.