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Does anyone know the pneumatic equivalent of an electrical capacitor?

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dragon

Oct 31, 2022
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So with electrical converted to pneumatic, resistors are the same, the voltage is pressure, the amps is the flow, diodes have resistance instead of volt drop?

But capacitors, I always couldn't think of them because I was stuck with one jar which connects to nothing!

So with electricity you connect both sides of the capacitor and it charges both ways, but pneumatically your just filling a bin with air.

So how do you go from this to having two sides and conduction through it?
 

kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
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Air valves. Air flows in - is stored - air flows out.

<edited> I said 'one way valves'.....d'uh..... it's air!
 
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bertus

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Hello,

Think of a balloon.
When blown up it stores air.

Bertus
 

dragon

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Air valves. Air flows in - is stored - air flows out.

<edited> I said 'one way valves'.....d'uh..... it's air!
This doesnt help, this is too ambiguous.
I already know I've got a vessel i can blow into, but how does something come out the other side, when the other side isnt even there??

Hello,

Think of a balloon.
When blown up it stores air.

Bertus

Thanks Bertus, balloons actually have a bit of back pressure, but how does a balloon have "pressure going through it???"

Accumulation tank
thats the cool word for it, calling them condensers is cool too, because they freeze as they give off the air, and they heat up as they take in the air!!! and if there is any water vapour, it becomes liquid inside (and they heat up, so with high humidity they actually get even hotter as they compress it in), and thats why they got the name I bet.


You know what I'd really like to see, a resistor capacitor filter done pneumaticly instead of with electricity, that would be a marvel to the ears, but I imagine it would be a little quiet because the resistors have to be so small and the capacitors so big to not kill the volume so much!
 

crutschow

May 7, 2021
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For a two terminal capacitor analog it could be a chamber with a sealed flexible diaphragm across the middle, and two nozzles, one on each side of the diaphragm.
Air going into one nozzle will flex the diaphragm and force air out the other nozzle.
The more pressure, the more the diaphragm flexes and the more air that is stored.
The size of the chamber corresponds to the value of the capacitance.
 

dragon

Oct 31, 2022
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Thats amazing, imagine stepping that up to an inch thick rubber membrane, that would take 1000 psi!!!

Yes I guess it depends on what u do, is what you get at what difference from the real thing. Theres probably lots of them maybe kinda like resistor isolators, they all behave in a different way, different ways of looking at it.
 

davenn

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So how do you go from this to having two sides and conduction through it?

you seem to have a basic misunderstanding of how a capacitor works
NOTHING conducts / passes through through a capacitor .....
Did you notice the capacitor symbol ? there is a gap in the middle
so nothing can pass through/across that gap.
For a two terminal capacitor analog it could be a chamber with a sealed flexible diaphragm across the middle, and two nozzles, one on each side of the diaphragm.
Air going into one nozzle will flex the diaphragm and force air out the other nozzle.
The more pressure, the more the diaphragm flexes and the more air that is stored.
The size of the chamber corresponds to the value of the capacitance.

This is a spot on analog for a capacitor and should show you what is happening
 
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Alec_t

Jul 7, 2015
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I'd really like to see, a resistor capacitor filter done pneumaticly
The exhaust muffler for a car is just that. The perforated baffles provide gas flow resistance and the chambers beyond provide the equvalent of capacitors.
 

dragon

Oct 31, 2022
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you seem to have a basic misunderstanding of how a capacitor works
NOTHING conducts / passes through through a capacitor .....
Did you notice the capacitor symbol ? there is a gap in the middle
so nothing can pass through/across that gap.
With an elastic capacitor itll conduct one side through to the other as the membrane bends.

Thats what I'm talking about, but without the membrane, and only a jug, theres no way it can conduct through.
 
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