We present numerical computations of flow and heat transfer in multiple jets impinging normally on a flat heated surface, obtained with a new second-moment turbulence closure combined with an elliptic blending model of non-viscous wall blocking effect. This model provides the mean velocity and turbulent stress fields in very good agreement with PIV measurements. The exploration of several simpler closures for the passive thermal field, conducted in parallel, confirmed that the major prerequisite for the accurate prediction of the temperature field and heat transfer is to compute accurately the velocity and stress fields. If this is achieved, the conventional anisotropic eddy-diffusivity model can suffice even in complex flows. We demonstrate this in multiple-impinging jets where such a model combination provided the distribution of Nusselt number over the solid plate in good agreement with experiments. Extension of the elliptic blending concept to full second-moment treatment of the heat flux and its truncation to a quasi-linear algebraic model is also briefly discussed. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.