How It Works
The high pressure gas exiting the cylinder initially flows in the form of a "wavefront" as all disturbances in fluids do. The exhaust gas pushes its way into the pipe which is already occupied by gas from previous cycles, pushing that gas ahead and causing a wave front. Once the gas flow itself stops, the wave continues on by passing the energy to the next gas down stream and so on to the end of the pipe. If this wave encounters any change in cross section or temperature it will reflect a portion of its strength in the opposite direction to its travel. For example a strong acoustic wave encountering an increase in area will reflect a weaker acoustic wave in the opposite direction. A strong acoustic wave encountering a decrease in area will reflect a strong acoustic wave in the opposite direction. The basic principle is described in wave dynamics. An expansion chamber makes use of this phenomenon by varying its diameter (cross section) and length to cause these reflections to arrive back at the cylinder at the desired times in the cycle.
There are three main parts to the expansion cycle.
Read more about this topic: Expansion Chamber
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