Quote Originally Posted by bigtoe01 View Post
you gain lost volume...so you are actually dialling in inefficiency, do you feel the gains in port flow outweigh the lost volume?. Air venturing work best when air is being dragged thru the port such as a carburettor on an engine, when air is being forced thru a port i think the gains are minimised somewhat. It actually looks better to have a tiny radius and a port large enough to ensure good flow but small enough to ensure the pressure build up is high enough to cushion the piston. The tiny radius minimises lost volume.

One thing I have considered and I mentioned this to Prof Mike at the Midland is a transfer port utilising the Bernoulli effect coupled with a venturi, there may be a way of increasing the amount of air behind the pellet so increasing the efficiency....not tested it though.

They use this system to blow up evacuation slides on aircraft, they have gas cylinders that if direct coupled would only fill around 1/3 of the slide, using a slick designed venturi they are able to tripple the amount of gas within the slide by dragging air into the system also.

how to fill a large bag with 1 breath... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UujAMPv3y-A


The trick would be closing off the ports that drag the air in as the air flow reverses and becomes negative.
I have recently been reading all i can find about transfer ports (more interested in PCP though) and have some thoughts:

the idea of a venturi is an interesting one (I get involved with them in my work) but here I dont think you could get them to work as its the increase in velocity through the narrowing of the venturi that produces a pressure drop at that point and thus creates suction which is used to draw more air, here you have an initial increase in pressure with little or no flow so air would pass put of the venturi, which means you would need a pretty efficient none return valve on the suction leg?

One thought that did occur to me is why can you not have a small cylindrical secion on the end of the piston that is sligthly smaller than the port so that it fills the port as the piston reaches the end of its travel which means no where for the air remaining in the cylinder to go so cushioning the piston may be it could seal maybe it could be sized to create some air passage?

I have also been reading some conflicting info on polishing the ports, I assume this is done to "ease" the path of the air? there is some thinking that this is a bad thing as it leads to laminar flow whereas turbulent flow is preferable? what about a rifled transfer port to impart spin to the air?