Quote:
Originally Posted by carbuff
Yeah yeah smart ass...  Makes complete sense now that I've seen what it does. I expected a spring or something else inside there, but it's about as simple as can be! |
The pre-charge sets the "spring rate" and the air inside the backside of the piston behaves as the spring. That would be one way of thinking of it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GregWeld
I didn't know how they worked either.... but once explained it sure seems simple enough. I thought maybe it was a bladder type deal inside the cylinder.
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Hydraulic accumulators come in two basic varieties. Bladder and piston type. I am not aware of one marketed for auto racing that uses a bladder. The bladder type fits the description of what you were envisioning.
In hydraulic system design I have used these to act in the same way a capacitor behaves in an electric circuit. It absorbs spikes and allows the pressure to vary less in a system that has a large volume actuator.