The maverick engineer Nikola Tesla made his contribution in the mechanical engineering field too. Look at one of his favorite inventions — a bladeless turbine, or Tesla Turbine. The Tesla turbine had a simple, unique design, yet it was able to beat the efficiency levels of steam turbines at that time.

Normal turbines are complex in design, with blades of complicated geometry and stator parts. Nikola Tesla once said the Tesla turbine is his favorite invention and he even claimed an efficiency level of 97% for this turbine.

Let’s start a design journey to understand this interesting piece of technology, and towards the end we will also verify Tesla’s efficiency claim.