A model of laminar flow and heat transfer in rough microchannels is developed and analyzed numerically to compare the effect of roughness elements on the thermal and hydrodynamic characteristics. In this model, the rough surfaces are configured with triangular, rectangular and semicircular roughness elements, respectively. Here, the effects of the Reynolds number, roughness height, and roughness element spacing on pressure drop and heat transfer in rough microchannels are all investigated and discussed. The results indicate that the global heat transfer performance is improved by the roughness elements at the expense of pressure head when compared to the smooth channel. Differing from the smooth microchannels, both the Poiseuille number and average Nusselt number of rough microchannels are no longer constant with Reynolds numbers and are larger than the classical value. Especially, the difference from the effects of three types of roughness elements is identified. With the increasing roughness height, the flow over surfaces with semicircular and triangular roughness elements induces stronger recirculation and flow separation. This contributes to heat transfer enhancement but also increases the pressure drop. However, the influence of the rectangular roughness element height is weaker than that of semicircular and triangular elements. In addition, the effects of the spacing of roughness elements on the Poiseuille number and average Nusselt number are in decreasing order for semicircular, triangular and rectangular roughness elements. respectively. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.