Abstract The present work experimentally analyses the surface heat transfer from a thermally active copper rod of circular cross-section placed in different arrangement of dummy rods. All the rods are arranged in cross-flow. Wind-tunnel experiments for nine different arrangements of heated rod at a Reynold’s number of 12600 were investigated. Temperature variation, heat transfer and vertical velocity distribution downstream of the cylinder were studied. Higher heat transfer rate was obtained when the heated rod was placed in downstream position due to the rubbing action of vortex shedding phenomena of upstream rod. Maximum heat transfer rate was reported in tandem arrangement of rod with the thermally active cylinder placed in the downstream row. The wall effect becomes dominant near the wall region and affects the flow and heat transfer in the vicinity of wall. Pressure and logarithmic value of temperature has been reported at suitable positions to explain the thermofluid physics.