Nikola Tesla has moved from neglected talent to folk hero and inventor modern engineers want to be associated with it. Yet his ideas were so varied that many called him the “Valuable Aqueduct.” A study of this device for using vibrations to pump fuel or other liquids has shown that it has unrealistic potential 101 years after it was patented. Angled barbs allow an object to move in one direction but prevent it from moving, a device now known as a Tesla valve uses a kind of loop to flow fluid to one side while preventing counter-flow.
With no moving parts, Tesla valves are much more resilient than standard check valves. The original design explains how many simulations, development efforts and YouTube videos explain how it works, but inspires that it may not realize the full amount of simple patents. Dr Leif Ristorph of New York University said in a statement, “It’s remarkable that this 100-year-old discovery is still not fully understood and could be applied to modern technologies in ways that have not yet been considered.” The restoration led to multiple experiments on prototypes built to match the original design of the testler as closely as possible, trying to pass fluids on both sides at different speeds and fluid viscosities.
In the case of nature communication, the restoration and co-authors pass through the valve with equal ease to each of the low flow rate fluids. However, reverse flow above a certain speed is almost impossible, when the pressure is right but the flow rate can go much further forward. “Seriously, this turn-on comes with the generation of turbulent flow in the opposite direction, which ‘plugs’ the pipe with the help of rotating and interrupted currents,” Ristroph explained. “Furthermore, the lift is seen at a much lower flow rate than in more standard-sized pipes – up to 20 times faster than conventional turbulence in a cylindrical pipe or pipe.” Many technologies operate well in a continuous flow environment, but fail in the face of pendulum forces, as many innovative ideas for wind or wave energy collection fail in the real world.
