Numerical Studies on the Influence of Surface Heating on the Flow Characteristics of a Conventional Tesla Valve

Abstract

In this paper we study in detail the effects surface heating on the fluid flow characteristics in a conventional tesla valve. We simulate a two dimensional, laminar, incompressible flow through the tesla valve using OpenFOAM. We use buoyantPimpleFoam solver for obtaining the necessary resuts. The numerical study revealed that the surface heating on a vertically mounted tesla valve resulted in an increase in the diodicity of the valve. A peak in diodicity is observed at a Reynolds number of 30 and Richardson number of 0.8.