Hydraulic loss experiment of straight-through Tesla valve in forward and reverse directions.

Tesla valves are widely used in the field of fluid control. To study the hydraulic performance of straight-through Tesla valves in forward and reverse flow, 16 straight-through Tesla valves with diverse blade parameters were designed in this paper, and hydraulic loss tests were carried out in forward and reverse flow under different working conditions. The results show that the hydraulic loss increases with the increasing working flow rate in forward and reverse flow; at the identical flow rate, the reverse loss is higher than the forward loss. Both the hydraulic loss through the valve and the unidirectional conductivity of the valve increase with increasing blade length, pitch, and number of blades, but too long of a length results in weakened unidirectional conductivity. The hydraulic loss increases with the increase of blade angle, and the unidirectional conductivity decreases with the increase of blade angle. When the blades are arranged in perfect symmetry, the hydraulic loss through the valve is maximum, and the valve has the best unidirectional conductivity.