The numerical simulation is used to obtain the unsteady laminar flow and convective heat transfer in the block-heated channel with the porous vortex-generator. The general Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer model is adopted for the porous vortex-generator. The parameters studies including porosity. Darcy number, width-to-height ratio of porous vortex-generator and Reynolds number have been explored on heat transfer enhancement and vortex-induced vibration in detail. The results indicate that heat transfer enhancement and vortex-induced vibration increase with increasing Reynolds number and width-to-height ratio. However, the porosity has slight influence on heat transfer enhancement and vortex-induced vibration. When Darcy number is 10(-3) or 10(-4), installing a porous vortex-generator with B/h = 1.0 improves overall heat transfer the best along heated blocks, and has a strong reduction of vortex-induced vibration. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.