In this paper, a two-dimensional, two-phase, isothermal model is presented to investigate the water transport characteristic and water distribution in a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) with emphasis on exploring the water distribution in different layers of DMFC. The liquid gas two-phase mass transport in the porous anode and cathode is formulated based on multi-fluid model in porous media and water and methanol crossover through the membrane are considered with the effect of diffusion, electro-osmotic drag, and convection. The modeling results agree well with the three different experimental data in an extensive range of operation conditions. A parametric study is also performed to examine the effects of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) permeability, cell output voltage and the contact angle on water distribution in different layers of DMFC. Water distribution in the anode side is increased, while it is decreased in the cathode side by augmenting the cell voltage as the results show. Furthermore, both the contact angle and the permeability of the cathode GDL significantly influence the water saturation in the anode and cathode side. (C) 2014 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.