Airtight chamber that allows people to pass between areas of different pressure; also an air bubble in a pipe that impedes fluid flow. An air lock may connect an environment at ordinary pressure and an environment that has high air pressure (such as a submerged caisson used for tunneling or building dams or bridge foundations).
An air lock may also permit someone wearing breathing apparatus to pass into an airless environment (into water from a submerged submarine or into the vacuum of space from a spacecraft).
A chamber that provides access to space where air is under pressure; SYN. airlock. air-lock + prikaži više