A gas in a tube is excited by a reciprocating piston operating at or near a resonant frequency. Damping is introduced into the system by two means: radiation of energy from one end of the tube and rate dependence of the gas. These define a lumped damping coefficient. It is shown that in the small rate limit the signal in the periodic state suffers negligible distortion in one travel time, and hence its propagation according to acoustic theory is valid. The shape of the signal is determined by a nonlinear ordinary differential equation. The small rate condition provides a test of the applicability of the theory to given experimental conditions. When there is no damping, shocks are a feature of the flow for frequencies in the resonant band. For a given amount of damping an upper bound on the piston acceleration which ensures shockless motion is given. The resonant band is analysed for both damped and undamped cases. The predictions of the theory are compared with experiment.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.