This work presents a computational study of the steady, axisymmetric, viscous flow around two circular cylinders in tandem. The vorticity-stream function formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations was chosen. Numerical solutions have been obtained in bipolar cylindrical coordinates. A compact, high-order, finite difference method was used to discretize the model equations. Iterative algorithms were tested to solve the discrete equations. Different cylinders spacing and sizes were considered for the upstream cylinder Reynolds number up to 30. Vorticity and pressure distributions on the cylinders surfaces and drag coefficients are presented and compared with those calculated for an isolated cylinder. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.