Tesla's turbine. What are its advantages?

This article is not about Tesla's car. Although, this word is now increasingly associated with the manufacturer of electric vehicles. Electric vehicles do not have turbines. It will be about another patent, the invention of Nikola Tesla - a turbine of a unique but simple design:

The turbine details are clearly cast and do not look like a makeshift prototype. Maybe there were even production samples. The patent was received in May 1913. Let's see the construction:

The rotor of a Tesla turbine does not have blades into which steam or liquid is supplied under pressure through nozzles. The rotor consists of plates with spaces between them. The operation of the turbine is based on the so-called boundary layer effect: liquid (or gas) is supplied under pressure tangentially in the slot. Getting between the plates, it starts its circular motion and, due to friction about them, turns the rotor. Then, having transferred all the energy to the rotor, slowing down the speed, it leaves the central-axial part of the turbine. This can be schematically depicted as follows:

The flow rate should not be high, otherwise turbulence occurs when friction against the discs and the efficiency decreases. Probably for this Tesla also invented a hydraulic reducer-valve. There was an article about him here: How does a Tesla valve work? And where can it be applied

It can be used to regulate (reduce) the fluid flow rate in the system without valves. Perhaps he even dampens any speed to the one for which his duct design is designed.

Demonstration of the turbine operation from the pressure of tap water:

A bladed turbine of this size would also rotate from the same pressure. But the rotor of a blade turbine is more difficult to manufacture. And it works at high speeds, and optimal efficiency is achieved only with large dimensions of the installation. The characteristics of the Tesla turbine are not fully understood. Perhaps this design is just one of those that allow, in a compact size of the installation, to obtain the same high efficiency as that of huge modern steam turbines.

What are the advantages of this design? I see simplicity in manufacturing at the highest possible efficiency (needs to be checked). I think that then N. Tesla relied on it. Because they did not know how to correctly calculate and produce blade turbines. Where do you think this turbine can be applied?

The spiral movement of the liquid inside the turbine reminded me of the principle of movers in the installations of V. Schauberger.

W. Schauberger was a researcher of the spiral motion of water in turbines.

If this topic is interesting - write in the comments, I will prepare an article about what he achieved in his research and experiments.

In general, the opinion about the existence of over-unit installations (efficiency> 1) is associated with the name of N. Tesla. That he learned how to get electricity from the atmosphere and transmit it. That Tesla coils are only part of his research. And that he even rode an electric car with a similar setup. But the radio control of the boat model - he definitely had it. About this - somehow in the next article ...

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