Diodicity of MicroTesla Valves Under Various Re Numbers.

Abstract

Although the Tesla valve is a well-known technology spanning almost 100 years, its wide range of potential applications in modern engineering problems has made it particularly attractive to researchers in the last few years. The major factor that characterizes the Tesla's valve effectiveness is the diodicity (<i>D</i>), which is practically defined as the ratio of the pressure difference in reverse to forward flow D=ΔPrevΔPfor. Under this framework, a geometry of multi-staged Tesla valves was selected to investigate the correlation between the Reynolds (Re) number and diodicity. Initial simulations were performed for N=2, N=6 and N=10 multi-staged micro Tesla valves using the OpenFoam platform, with Reynolds numbers of Re 50-450. Here, the maximum diodicity values obtained were D=1.43, D=2.76 and D=3.58 for double-, six- and ten-staged micro Tesla valves under Re=450, respectively. Further simulations were performed for N=3 and N=5 under the same initial conditions in order to investigate the proportionality between N and D.