Abstract In this study, the performance of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell at different channel geometries is investigated experimentally. Three PEM fuel cells with different channel geometries with active area and Nafion 117 as membrane with 0.004 Platinum for the anode and cathode are employed as a membrane electrode assembly. Some parameters such as input oxygen temperature ( ), input hydrogen temperature ( ), cell temperature ( ), input pressure ( ), oxygen flow rate ( ), hydrogen flow rate ( ) and geometry of channels ( ) affect the performance of the cell. A series of experiments are carried out to investigate the influence of the above parameters on the polarization curve under the above conditions. A semi empirical equation is offered to correlate the data for the polarization curve. The results show that when the geometry of channel is rectangular the performance of the cell is better than the triangular and elliptical channel. Also results show that increase in the operating temperature and pressure can enhance the cell performance and they are compared with the results of the correlated equation and a good agreement exists.

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