I am interested in using Tesla turbines as combustion engines. Is your project going to be idealized or do you have a specific gas source you are considering?
You will find it much easier to evaluate a Tesla turbine (TT) with compressed air rather than burning gas and blowing this through the turbine. That is a second stage to your experiment. You could use a TT as a compressor and turbine so you end up with something that looks like a conventional gas turbine. However, I am not a gas dynamics experty - but I doubt if using TT would result in a more efficient turbine than a conventional design using vanes.