Study on a PZT-actuated diaphragm pump for air supply for micro fuel cells

This paper presents a micro diaphragm air pump actuated by PZT bimorphs for air supply for micro fuel cells. The pump is characterized by thin structure, large air flow rate, low power consumption, etc. A prototype of the micro diaphragm air pump, with a size of 60 mm × 16 mm × 2 mm, was fabricated by precise manufacturing. Simulations and experiments showed that the diaphragm air pump has high efficiency and good performance. With a voltage of 20 V, the air pump's flow rate is 85.3 ml/min (the flow velocity is about 0.2 m/s) in resonance and its power consumption is only 3.18 mW.