An experimental investigation on pulsating impinging jets has been performed. The effect of the pulsation on the flow structure and heat transfer have been investigated. Frequency and amplitude were varied separately and the effect of each parameter was examined for different Reynolds numbers and nozzle-to-plate distances. The jet was found to become broader and the core jet length smaller with the pulsation. The reason for this behavior is that pulsation enhanced entrainment of air into the jet, which results in a change of mean velocity of the jet. Nevertheless, the behavior at lower frequencies (up to 140 Hz) is still quasisteady. This means that the amplitude of the pulsation behaves similar to the mean velocity of the jet, that the shapes of the velocity profiles are comparable to steady jets and that the jet behavior is independent of frequency. At moderate frequencies heat transfer is only affected by the pulsation when nozzle-to-plate distance and amplitude are large enough. At small nozzle-to-plate distances enhanced entraintrient has no influence and no difference between steady and pulsating jets can be recognized. At large nozzle-to-plate distances entrainment increases and jet velocity reduces. This yields a reduction of heat transfer in the stagnation point of up to 50%. But besides of this effect of enhanced entrainment a theoretical limit could be determined, above which the jet is not anymore quasisteady. Above Sr = 0.2 heat transfer is affected by the pulsation also at small nozzle-to-plate distances. At this frequency boundary layer is also affected by the pulsation. This yields increased heat transfer coefficients at the stagnation point. For larger nozzle-to-plate spacings this effect is superposed by the reduction of beat transfer due to increased entrainment, resulting in a strong decrease of heat transfer coefficient. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.