THE TEAM

Four classmates in high school and a year older friend has stood together to create the SparX team. Since we are all aware of recent climate changes and interested in physics, astronomy and new innovations, we decided to do some research on global warming and apparently came up with some new ideas.

ABOUT THE TESLA TURBINE

A Tesla turbine consists of a set of smooth discs, with nozzles applying a moving fluid to the edge of the disc. The fluid drags on the disc by means of viscosity and the adhesion of the surface layer of the fluid. As the fluid slows and adds energy to the discs, it spirals into the centre exhaust. The Tesla turbine is the most efficient designed rotary engine ever designed. Its main advantage compared to all other turbines is that it can reach up to 96-98% efficiency. So, the question is why this turbine has not widespread. The important role played Edison that claimed the turbine was a failure. This bad press, combined with the fact that the advanced materials we know today, had not been availableat that time yet. However, today the major problem seems to be that the electric companies had already invested heavily in bladed turbines.

Figure 1: Tesla turbine (https://grabcad.com/library/tesla-turbine-pump)

WHAT IS SX1.0?

SX1.0 is a plane which has tubes installed on the bottom part of the plane. Tubes would scoop air andsend it to the Tesla turbine in the engine of the plane. Our system would ensure the plane to fly without any kerosene consumption when it reaches certain velocity (it must be high enough).

Figure 2: SX1.0 airplane

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Our idea is to install as many tubes as possible - the more air they can scoop the easier it is for the engine to work. According to fluid dynamics the speed of wind is higher on the bottom part of the plane compared to the upper part. To utilize that the tubes would be installed on the bottom of the plane. During take offs these tubes would cause some extra air resistance. To prevent that our idea is to install a mechanism that hides the tubes inside the plane. Since the Tesla turbine needs the air to be compressed and fast enough to function optimally, these tubes would narrow and that would cause the air pressure to grow (Venturi effect). With utilization of centrifugal force that forces acceleration we could reach higher final speed. This is the reason why our idea is to curve the tubes inside the plane. The installed sensors in the tubes would measure the pressure. When the pressure is too low, the compressor would help to increase the air pressure. In this way we would ensure the pressure and velocity of the air to be high enough, so that the Tesla turbine could work at maximum efficiency (96-98%). The air flow would be led by the tubes to the engines with Tesla turbine on the wings of the plane. Behind the turbine, the propeller would convert rotary motion into a force that pushes the airplane forwards. Our system can only work when the speed of the plane is high enough which is not the case during take offs. During take offs the plane can use kerosene as well in the same way that normal planes do.

Figure 3: Working process

IDEA IN THE FUTURE

This technology could be applied not only on airplanes but on cars too. We assume the idea has a potential to be improved by using only electric engines that might even lower the pollution and increase the possible length of flight.

SOURCES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_aviation#Climate_change

http://www-f1.ijs.si/~rudi/sola/Tesla_turbine.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_turbine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrnul6ixX90

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNvzZfsC13o

https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-vector/hand-drawn-sketch-aircraft-black-isolated-1190601244

https://www.explainthatstuff.com/howplaneswork.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propeller

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venturi_effect

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/energysource/finding-nature-inspired-solutions-for-energy-use-design-challenges-in-engineering-and-architecture/