In this study, we present a rigorous mathematical model, to treat prediction and analysis of proton exchange membrane fuel cells gas concentration and current density distribution in mass transfer area and chemical reaction area performed in 3-D geometry. The model is based on the solution of the conservation equations of mass, momentum, species, and electric current in a fully integrated finite-volume solver using the CFDRC commercial code. The influences of fuel cell performance with two kinds of flow channel pattern design are studied. The gas concentration of the straight flow pattern appears excessively non-uniform, resulting in a local concentration polarization. On the other hand, the gas concentration is well distributed for the serpentine flow pattern, creating a better mass transfer phenomena. The performance curves (polarization curves) are also well correlated with experimental data. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley I Sons, Ltd.