An Experimental Investigation of Flow Phenomena in a Multistage Micro-Tesla Valve

Abstract The Tesla–diode valve, with no moving parts, allows restricted flow in one direction. It has many potential applications in different industrial situations. Despite the application of the valve and the importance of the effect of flow phenomena on the Tesla valve's performance, very few studies have experimentally investigated the motion of flow within the Tesla valve. This study aims to contribute to this growing area of research on the performance of Tesla valves by demonstrating the flow phenomena and the flow conditions needed to be used in numerical studies. In this work, the effect of direction of the flow and Reynolds number on the flow phenomena generated in a Tesla–diode valve is studied. Particle shadowgraph velocimetry (PSV) is utilized to investigate and visualize the velocity field. The results of this study confirm some of the phenomena that have been observed using numerical simulations. It also highlights the flow phenomena leading to an increase in the diodicity by an increase in the number of Tesla loops in the valve. An important observation often ignored in numerical simulation is the presence of unsteady behavior and vortex shedding for higher Reynolds number flows.