Abstract This paper presents the causes of pulsation, their effects on the piping and the compressor, and the methods by which pulsations can be reduced. By means of an analogy to electrical networks, the interaction between the compressor and the piping can be visualized more easily, and the action of the system can be expressed in mathematical form. The resultant equations are not readily solvable but can be simplified and solved for the special cases which have a tank or filter close to the compressor. The results of the computations are compared with experiments on a laboratory compressor and a few large-size installations. They are expressed in the form of graphs which make it possible to select an appropriately sized surge tank or filter for any compressor and any allowable pulse magnitude.