A developed measurement system for current distribution mapping has enabled a new approach for operational measurements in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Currently, there are many issues with the methods to measure current distribution; some of the problems that arise are breaking up the fuel cell component and these measurements are costly. Within this field of work, there is a cost effective method and an easy technique of mapping the current distribution within a fuel cell while not disrupting reactant flow. The physical setup of this method takes a current distribution board and inserts it between an anode flow field plate and a gas diffusion layer. From this layout, the current distribution can be directly measured from the current distribution board. This novel technique can be simply applied to different fuel cell hardware. Further it also can be used in fuel cell stack by inserting multiple current distribution boards into the stack cells. The results from the current distribution measurements and the electrochemical predictions from computational fluid dynamics modeling were used to analyze water transports inside the fuel cell. This developed system can be a basis for a good understanding of optimization for fuel cell design and operation mode. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.