Air lift (Pneumatic pump) is widely used in marine mining, drilling hydraulic mining, deep-water dredging, and other occasions, which has attracted more and more attention from users. Scholars at home and abroad have done a lot of exploratory research on improving the efficiency of gas lift, and put forward that pulse air intake is one of the effective ways to improve the efficiency of air lift. Based on this, a Helmholtz air nozzle was proposed. The pulse jet generated by this nozzle was used as the air intake mode of air lift to improve the performance of air lift. Based on the wave vortex theory, the generation mechanism of the self-excited oscillating pulse jet was analyzed. The flow field in the self-excited oscillating air nozzle was numerically simulated by using Fluent software. Experimental research was carried out based on simulation results. Results show that the structural parameters and operation parameters have a significant influence on the jet characteristics, the inlet pressure is 3 bar, the cavity length is L = 64 mm, the frequency is 8 Hz, the pressure pulsation fluctuation difference and amplitude are the largest, the air pulse jet is the most significant; the amplitude increases at first and then decreases with the increase of cavity length. The numerical simulation is consistent with the experimental results. The research results can provide reference for the engineering application of the integration of air pulse jet and air lift, and has high engineering application value. © 2024 Chinese Vibration Engineering Society. All rights reserved.