《无扇叶涡轮机及简要翻译》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《无扇叶涡轮机及简要翻译（14页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、Most people know Nikola Tesla, the eccentric and brilliant man who arrived in New York City in 1884, as the fat her of alt erna ting curre nt, the form of electricity that supplies power to almost all homes and businesses. ButTeslawasaprodigiousinventorwhoappliedhisgeniustoawiderange ofpractical pro
2、blems. All told, heheld272patents in25countries, with 112patentsintheUnitedStatesalone.Youmightthinkthat,ofallthis work, Tesla would have held his inventions in electrical engineering -those that described a complete system of generators, transformers, transmission lines, motor and lighting - deares
3、t to his heart. But in 1913, Tesla received a patent for what he described as his most important invention. That invention was a turbine, known today as the Tesla turbine, the boundary layer turbine or the flat-disk turbine.大多数人知道尼古拉特斯拉，那个1884年来到纽约的既古怪又杰出的男人， 他被称为交流电（一种供应几乎所有家庭及商业用电的电力形式）之父。但是特 斯拉是一
4、个能把他的天才之处广泛地应用到实际问题中去的一个惊人发明家。他 一共持有25个国家的272项专利, 其中有1 12项在美国。你可能会想，他所有的 工作中，特斯拉只已经持有了最重要的电气工程方面的发明那些被描述成为 一整套电力系统：发电机，变压器，电力输送线，电动机和照明系统。但是在 1913 年，特斯拉收到了一项被他说成最重要的发明的专利权。那个发明是个涡 轮机，就是现在的特斯拉涡轮机，或者说是边界层涡轮机，或平盘发动机。Hrvoje Polan/AFP/Getty ImagesA boy watches a radio-controlled boat in the town of Smilj
5、an, Croatia, Nikola Teslas hometown. Nearby is a bladeless waterwheel turbine of Teslas design. The same principle powers his famous turbine engine. 在尼古拉 特斯拉的故乡，克罗地亚的希马茨小镇，一个小男孩正看着一艘无线电控制的 船。附近是一个特斯拉设计的无扇叶水轮涡轮机。他著名的涡轮机用的是同样的原理驱动的。Interestingly, using the word turbine to describe Teslas invention see
6、ms a bit misleading.Thats because mostpeople think ofa turbine as a shaft with blades - like fan blades - attached to it. In fact, Websters dietionary defines a turbine as anengine turned by the force of gas or water on fan blades. But the Tesla turbine doesnt have any blades. It has a series of clo
7、sely packed parallel disks attached to a shaft and arranged within a sealed chamber. When a fluid is allowed to enter the chamber and pass between the disks, the disks turn, which in turn rotates the shaft. This rotary motion can be used in a variety of ways, from powering pumps, blowers and compres
8、sors to running cars and airplanes. In fact, Tesla claimed that the turbine was the most efficient and the most simply designed rotary engine ever designed.有趣的是，用“涡轮机”这个词来描述特斯拉的发明似乎有点令人误解。那是因 为大多数人认为涡轮机都是在像风扇那样，有刀片附着于轴上的。实际上，韦伯 斯特的字典里面把涡轮机定义成为用气体或水冲击风扇叶片形成的力来使其转 动的一种发动机。但是特斯拉涡轮机没有丝毫的叶片。它由一系列紧密堆积的平 行
9、的盘片附着于轴上并且被装在一个密封筒里。当液体进入到筒里并且流经盘片 是，盘片就会转动，最终带动轴旋转。这种旋转运动能用在很多的领域，从动力 泵，鼓风机和压缩机到运转汽车和飞机。实际上，特斯拉宣称这种发动机是目前 为止最有效率和最容易设计的旋转发动机。Ifthisistrue,whyhasnttheTeslaturbineenjoyedmorewidespreaduse? Why hasn t it become as ubiquitous as Tesla s other masterpiece, AC power transmission? These are important ques
10、tions, but theyre secondary to more fundamental questions, such as how does the Tesla turbine work and what makes the technology so innovative? Well answer all of these questionsonthenextfewpages.Butfirst,weneedtoreviewsomebasics aboutthedifferenttypesofenginesdevelopedovertheyears.Onthenext page, w
11、ell get a better idea of the specific problem Tesla was hoping to solve with his new invention.如果是真的话，为什么特斯拉涡轮机没有得到更广泛的应用呢？为什么没能像特 斯拉其他的杰作，比如交流输电系统，那样普遍存在呢？这些是重要的问题，但 是相比于其他一些基本问题要显得次要一些，比如特斯拉涡轮机如何工作的和什 么使该技术如此的具有创新性？我们将在接下来的版面中回答所有的这些问题。 但是首先我们需要回顾一些多年以来发展已经成熟的几种发动机类型的基本知 识。The Tesla Turbine Engine
12、The job of any engine is to convert energy from a fuel source into mechanical energy. Whether the natural source is air, moving water, coal or petroleum, the input energy is a fluid. And by fluid we mean something very specific - its any substance that flows under an applied stress. Both gases and l
13、iquids, therefore, are fluids, which can be exemplified by water. As far as an engineer is concerned, liquid water and gaseous water, or steam, function as a fluid.任何发动机的工作原理都是把一种燃料转换成为机械能。无论这种自然资源是空 气，流水，煤或是石油，输入的能量石液体。并且对于液体我们意识到一些特殊 的事情那就是任何液体在外加应力下流动。无论气体还是液体，都是流体， 可以用水来示例。就工程师而言，液体的水和气体的水，或者是水蒸
14、气，都有流 体的功能。David McNew/Getty ImagesWindturbines,liketheseinPalmSprings,Calif.,areexamplesofotherturbinesbeingusedtogenerateelectricity.UnlikeTeslasmodel,these are bladed turbines.像这些美国加州的风力涡轮机，是其他发动机用来发电的例子。不是特斯拉的模 型，这些是有叶片的涡轮机。At the beginning of the 20th century, two types of engines were common:
15、bladed turbines, driven by either moving water or steam generated from heated water, and piston engines, driven by gases produced during the combus tion of gasoline. The former is a type of rot ary engine, the latter a type of reciprocating engine. Both types of engines were complicated machines tha
16、t were difficult and time-consuming to build.在 20 世纪之初，有两种发动机很普遍：一种是有扇叶涡轮机，被流动的水或者 热水产生的蒸汽来驱动。另一种是活塞发动机，由汽油在燃烧室产生的气体来驱 动。前者是一种旋转发动机，后者是一种往复式发动机。这两种发动机都是又难 制造又耗时的复杂机器。Quiz CornerHow much do you know about engines and what they do? Test your knowledge with our Engine Quiz!你对发动机知道多少？他们是如何工作的？测试一下你的知识通过我们的考察。Consider a piston as an example. A piston is a cylindrical piece of metal that moves up and down, usually inside another cyli
