Cryogenic Tesla Valve

We investigated the design and use of a Tesla valve (TV) for cryogenic applications, i.e., cryogenic Tesla valve (CTV). TVs are designed with a convoluted pattern that favors flow in the forward direction as opposed to the reverse direction. A main advantage of TVs is that they have no moving parts or valve seals which can fail in traditional non-return valves. Additionally, a TV can’t be suddenly close like a traditional non-return valve (NRV) which can cause an effect known as water hammering. Fluid hammering can damage pipes and other components upstream of an NRV. TVs have uses in thermal applications such as heat exchangers, heat sinks, and advanced heat pipes. With the advances in 3D printing, we explored novel CTV designs that differ from traditional TVs. Our designs take on non-trivial geometries or extrapolated previous designs into 3D geometries. This project used Computational Fluid Dynamics to simulate the fluid flow of novel CTV designs.