This paper was aimed to investigate the effect of rectangle-winglet vortex generator on the heat transfer performance and flow resistance characteristics. As known, in the fin-and-tube heat exchanger, the weak region behind the tubes was harmful to the overall performance. In this study, rectangle-winglet was set nearby the weak region. The results showed that the weak region was improved and rectangle-winglet vortex generator had increased the thermal performance and improved the resistance characteristics. The kappa-epsilon-enhance mathematics model was adopted to investigate the effect of rectangle-winglet vortex generator configurations on the thermal performance at different Re numbers. Resistance between the working fluid and the solid was considered in the numerical simulation. Experimental data from Wang's were adopted to validate the agreement of the simulation. Besides, the Arafat's simulation results were compared with the simulation results of present investigation. Based on the numerical results, a detailed description of heat transfer characteristics and resistance performance was presented and discussed. The discussed ranges of these geometry parameters were 3-5 mm (length), 30-60 degrees (angle), and 0.375-1.125 mm (height) and all the numerical data would be presented at Reynolds number in the range between 1300 and 2000. It can be concluded from the results that improvement of weak region was beneficial to improve the flow resistance characteristics and enhance the heat transfer performance. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.