Isothermal two- and three-dimensional polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell cathode flow field models were implemented to study the behavior of reactant and reaction product gas flow in a parallel channel flow field. The focus was on the flow distribution across the channels and the total pressure drop across the flow field. The effect of the density and viscosity variation in the gas resulting from the composition change due to cell reactions was studied and the models were solved with governing equations based on three different approximations. The focus was on showing how a uniform flow profile can be achieved by improving an existing channel design. The modeling results were verified experimentally. A close to uniform flow distribution was achieved in a parallel channel system. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.