What if you want to transport a fluid substance such as a gas or liquid to a certain place while avoiding reflux and being able to control the flow rate?
It is very simple, only need to install a valve, with a switch to control the adjustment is enough. So what if you don't have to switch? Well, as early as 100 years ago, a great scientist designed a special valve that could ensure the one-way flow of fluid without a switch, this person was Tesla, and the valve he invented was called "Tesla valve". Tesla this person, we should be very familiar, he is undoubtedly a legendary scientist, in his lifetime, a total of more than 1,000 invention patents, the most widely known scientific achievements are: the invention of alternating current, wireless energy transmission, radio development and application and so on.
Even in modern times, there are still many people who regard Tesla as the object of their admiration, and more entrepreneurs who admire Tesla and name their own electric vehicles after him, making this name more widely known.
Unfortunately, when we open a lot of search software and type in the word "Tesla", we don't see the scientist on the first page, only cars. Most of his inventions are already well known, and in addition to those that are well known, there are some lesser-known inventions that can actually be called classics and are likely to be discovered for new uses in the future, such as the "Tesla valve" we mentioned. What is a Tesla valve? It is a valve that does not require a switch to ensure the one-way flow of fluids such as liquids and gases.
How does a Tesla valve ensure the one-way flow of liquid?
Just take a closer look at the profile of the Tesla valve to understand why. Tesla valve adopts a special circuit design, when the fluid is forward through the Tesla valve, the fluid will be divided into two at each intersection, and then the two fluids will converge at the next intersection and accelerate. On the contrary, if the fluid flows backwards into the Tesla valve, the fluid will also be divided into two ways at the first intersection, and converge again at the second intersection, the difference is that this time, the flow direction of the two fluids is contrary, so it forms a great resistance, so the Tesla valve can only pass forward, and it is difficult to reverse the reverse flow. Although the design of tesla valves is exquisite, is it necessary to make it so complicated to install a valve to solve the problem?
For a long time, people have thought that the value of the actual application of Tesla valves is not large, the so-called underappreciated, but now this situation is quietly changing. In fact, the application potential of Tesla valves in the field of fluid transportation is very large.
For example, there is a class of fish living in rivers, we call them retrospective fish, they live in the lower reaches of the river, but every year when the water period comes, they will swim back upstream to spawn, and the eggs will hatch and go down the river to live downstream. This process is not a problem, but because humans build dams, it blocks the way back to the fish' return, so what to do? Humans have come up with a way to build fish ladders, which is to put it bluntly, to build a staircase for the fish to climb up.
Although the construction of the fish ladder has opened up a way home for the fish, for a long time, there has been a problem with the fish ladder, that is, the problem of the size of the water flow.
There are many kinds of backtracking fish in the river, the size is different, the water flow is large, some fish are difficult to complete the task of climbing the ladder against the current, and the water flow is small, the buoyancy is not enough, and it cannot drag the larger fish. So some people thought of applying Tesla valves to the construction of fish ladders. Now the fish ladder in the Piciox Canyon in Switzerland is built according to the principle of tesla valves. The river flows backwards from the upstream into the "Tesla valve fish ladder", due to the great resistance encountered, so the flow rate of the water is very slow, and the larger the flow, the greater the pressure, the slower the flow rate, so both the amount of water is guaranteed and the flow rate is limited.
The application of fish ladder construction can only be regarded as a small test knife of Tesla valve, and scientists have found that the structure of Tesla valve not only works on fluids such as gases and liquids, but also acts on flames.
The characteristic of the Tesla valve is that the reverse passage, the greater the pressure, the greater the resistance, the slower the speed, and even the complete stop. The forward passage, the greater the pressure, the faster the speed, when the flame is forward through the Tesla valve, it will produce a significant acceleration effect. What is the purpose of accelerating the flame? Useful, how did our rockets fly into the sky? It relies on the injection of flames, and increasing the injection speed can save fuel. Since rockets can be used, jets should also be used, and the field of application has risen to aerospace engineering, so we say that the application potential of Tesla valves is actually very large.