A review of the literature pertaining to flame impingement heat transfer is presented. Studies related to different modes of heat transfer, flame shapes and flame stabilization are considered. Investigations of previous work for different experimental configurations, operating conditions, burner geometry, separation distance and stagnation target with instrumentation are compared. Studies related to measurement and contributions of non-luminous radiation to overall heat transfer are considered. Modeling and computation of flame impingement heat transfer processes in the recent literature have been reviewed. Semi-analytical and empirical correlations to find the total heat flux are briefly presented. Finally, unresolved issues are mentioned for further research. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.