Influence of cathode flow pulsation on performance of proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

The effect of cathode flow pulsation on the performance of a 10-cell proton-exchange membrane fuel cell is investigated. An acoustic woofer generates a pulsating flow, which is added to a unidirectional flow supplied from a compressed air tank. By adding the flow pulsation, the fuel cell power output and the limit current dramatically increase while the fuel cell efficiency slightly decreases. As the pulsation amplitude increases, the improvement in fuel cell performance is more pronounced. The performance enhancement shows no obvious dependency on a pulsation frequency change from 10 to 30 Hz. The cathode flow pulsation effect is more distinct at low cathode flow rates.