Name: Grant L.
Status: Other
Age: 30s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
Pure Nitrogen gas is used for energy storage in hydraulic
accmulators.
Some large, low pressure accmumlators have no membrane to separate the oil
and nitrogen.
The nitrogen eventually gets disolved/diffused into the oil and
periodically needs to be recharged.
Question:
Does the nitrogen dissolve faster at higher pressures?
How deep into the oil will the nitrogen penetrate?
Replies:
The general rule is: Gases become more soluble in a solvent when the
pressure increases. This is expressed quantitatively by Henry's law that
states that the pressure is proportional to the concentration of the
dissolved gas -- P = k*C, where P is the gas pressure, k is an empirical
constant, and C is the concentration of the dissolved gas (all quantities
being in a consistent set of units. The "bends" suffered by deep sea divers
is a consequence of the same trend in the solubility of nitrogen in blood.
As an aside, the solubility of gases to my knowledge, decreases with
increasing temperature.
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