Heat transfer and flow characteristics of the sinusoidal-corrugated channel with Al2O3-water nanofluid are analyzed by a 2-D numerical simulation. A parametric study method is used to analyze the performance of sinusoidal-corrugated channel in practical applications like plate-fin compact heat exchangers. The effects of channel height, channel length, wave length, wave amplitude, and phase shift at different Reynolds numbers (6000-22,000) and nanoparticle volume fractions (0-4%) are evaluated. Nusselt number and Darcy friction factor are considered as performance parameters. It is found that the channel height and wave amplitude have the highest influences on Nusselt number and friction factor values, respectively. Also, the results show that the nanofluid flow inside the sinusoidal-corrugated channels offers higher values of Nusselt number compared to the base fluid, while the friction factor of both the nanofluid and the base fluid gets almost the same values. Finally, correlations are proposed to predict Nusselt number and friction factor of the water and Al2O3-water nanofluid flows in the sinusoidal-corrugated channels. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.