Rational thermal management is essential for the steady and safe operation of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stacks, even though experimental measurements of the thermal distribution inside DMFC stacks are difficult. Therefore, a double-phase mathematical model was developed for the thermal investigation of DMFC stacks and to further build guidelines for their manufacture and operation. The effects of various configurational and operational parameters on the thermal distribution of the stacks were systemically studied. Current density, the number of single cells in the stack, the fuel concentration, the reactant flow rates, and some configurational parameters of the bipolar plate were optimized using the model to obtain a relatively uniform temperature distribution within the stack. The current density can strongly influence the thermal properties of large-scale DMFC stacks. As an example, extremely uniform temperature distribution was obtained for a 10-cell stack fueled with low-concentration methanol. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.