A design of fuel-cell manifold to evenly distribute the reactants among the channels within bipolar plates is presented. Neglecting the friction term from the momentum equation, one-dimensional governing equations are manipulated to develop the manifold equation to achieve the required design. Some manifold shapes that satisfy the manifold equation, are suggested, together with the distribution of static pressure within the manifold itself. (c) 2005 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.