Subject: Steam Power



------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Don Kulha
To: Tom Keller
------------------------------------------------------------------
> Original Message Date: 29 Jul 91  15:32:28
> From: Tom Keller
> To: Don Kulha
>  
>       Not having read more than the info file on the Tesla 
> turbines, I am not certain, but from what I read, the Tesla 
> turbine is NOT a high speed turbine.   Also, I don't think 
> that testing it with compressed air is going to give you 
> much in the way of meaningful data, as the performance with 
> steam will be considerably different.
>  
>       Would be interested in participating more directly in 
> your expreimentations.   Gimme a jingle, ok?
>  
    I'm not sure about speeds myself other than knowing that the 
moving steam or air column in the turbine takes a longer path the 
higher the RPM goes increasing the efficency. I have heard that 
some of Tesla's turbines were spun up to the neighborhood of 80,000 
RPM (at which point I believe it exploded). One of the engineers at 
the lab has been doing some calcs for me and it seems that at about 
3,600 RPM the aluminum rotors I was considering using would explode 
(6" dia.). I'll probably be going to a hardenable grade of 
stainless steel for the experimental model's rotors. I believe that 
the turbine would work far better on steam than compressed air but 
since air is easier for me to get it will be the first phase test 
medium. At that point if it shows any promise at all I'll try the 
next phase on steam power. Initally I'll be contacting a retired 
steam buff from the lab to use his rig and later consider building 
or buying a boiler set-up.
    I appreciate the point you made about about fuels and 
pollution. My root interest in this project isn't the turbine 
although I do find the idea and the simplicity of it beautiful. My 
primary goal is to create a solar powered boiler to drive an engine 
to make electrical power with a minimum of pollution. I may end up 
not using the turbine at all and am researching piston style steam 
engines in parallel with the turbine project. I want to make energy 
with an absolute minimum of pollution so that I'll have a backup 
source of energy to PV's, wind or Hydro when I make my move off the 
grid. If the solar heated boiler proves practical (and I have every 
reason to believe it will) I would still have a wood-fired boiler 
in tandem with the solar powered one. One of the reasons folks 
living off-grid often have gas-fired generators is that sometimes 
there isn't enough solar, wind, or hydro power available to charge 
the batteries. Proper system design should minimize the need for 
carbon-dioxide producing power generation. It's definitly one of my 
goals here but if I have to fallback on burning wood a couple times 
a year I won't feel too bad. I'd probably have a gas fired 
generator too in mothballs (on the off chance an emergency came up 
and it was needed).
     Since we're on the subject of pollution here I'll ramble for a 
moment. A part of my "dream" AE system entails having a small 
"uphill" pond to act as sort of a battery in conjunction with 
"micro" or "nano" hydro power. Wind or steam power might be an 
excellent way to pump water uphill into a pond without first 
converting the energy into electricity. Then, given enough head to 
create water pressure and a small hydro generator or alternator I'd 
have clean power on demand. Wind and hydro are a lot cleaner in 
terms of their overall enviornmental impact as opposed to 
photovoltaics. Having an aqueous "battery" of sorts would also 
minimize the size of the battery bank one would need for their 
rural homesite...and most batteries contain some toxics we'd do 
best to minimize the use of. Even considering the negative impact 
of PV's and/or batteries and/or burning wood to fire a boiler 
they've got to be far lesser impacts than another Rancho Seco or 
Three-Mile Island atomic plant.....DCK

   P.S.-Will keep your kind offer of assistance in mind Tom. May 
need assistance when I get around to the steam plant phase of the 
project assuming I get that far (...which is likely...).

--- ConfMail V3.31
 * Origin: Sonoma Online RFE, Fido V12T/HST/V.32 (707)545-0746 
(1:125/7)
: 125/7 151/1000 1003 223