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A uniform temperature distribution is important to obtain better control and higher performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In PEMFCs, more than half of the chemical energy of hydrogen is converted into heat during the electrochemical generation of electricity. If not being properly exhausted, this reaction heat overheats the PEMFCs and thus impairs their performance and durability. In general, large-scale PEMFCs are cooled by liquid water that circulates through coolant flow channels in bipolar plates or in dedicated cooling plates. In this study, detailed fluid flow and heat transfer in large-scale cooling plates with 18cm×18cm square area was simulated using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. Based on the CFD simulations, the performances of six different coolant flow field designs were assessed in terms of the maximum temperature, temperature uniformity, and …