Effect of Air Pulsation on Pressure Measurement in Bottom Settler of Pulsed Extraction Column by Air Purge Method

The present research aims to determine the effect of air pulsation on pressure measurements for the column weight, the density of organic phase, the position of two-phase-surface and the density of aqueous phase in the bottom settler of pulsed extraction column by air purge method. It is shown that the time-averaged pressure drops for the density of organic phase, the position of phase surface and the density of aqueous phase remain constant under three conditions such as both the flow rate of fluid and air pulsation are zero, the flow rate of fluid is zero but air pulsation is not zero and neither the flow rate of single fluid nor air pulsation is zero, however, the relative error of these above pressure drop successively increases under the condition that neither the flow rates of two phase fluid nor air pulsation is zero. For both organic and aqueous phase, the time-averaged pressure drop of column weight decreases with the increasing of pulsed amplitude under the condition that the flow rate of fluid is zero but air pulsation is not zero. But for organic phase, the pressure drop increases with the increasing of the flow rate of fluid, however, it is opposed for aqueous phase due to the difference of flow direction.