This paper presents a novel design of the rectangular parallelepiped within the interdigitated flow field to augment the performance of a PEM fuel cell by simulation and experiment. The numerical results indicate that the performance is enhanced with increasing the rectangular parallelepiped number because of stronger obstructing reactant gases through the channel to enter catalyst layers. In addition, the novel design is numerically obtained for the interdigitated flow field. The operational parameters are then determined by the Taguchi method on the experiment according to the novel design. The net power obtained is 26% greater for the novel design at the optimum parameter combination of A(2)B(3)C(2)D(2)E(2) than for the smooth-walled channel at the A(2)B(2)C(2)D(3)E(3). (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.