This work presents a computational study of the forced convection heat transfer around two circular cylinders in tandem. Axisymmetric, steady, laminar flow around the cylinders was assumed. The temperature inside the cylinders is considered spatially uniform but not constant in time. Numerical solutions have been obtained in bipolar cylindrical coordinates. The finite difference method was used to discretize the equations of the mathematical model. The influence of the model parameters on the heat transfer rate was analysed for the upstream cylinder Reynolds number, Re, varying from 1 to 30 and fluid phase Prandtl number equal to 0.1, 1, 10 and 100. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.