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This study was conducted to investigate the flow and heat transfer characteristics of a flat plate located between two symmetrical cylinders. Flow visualization experiments were conducted based on the open-loop fluid test bench to verify the accuracy of numerical simulation. The effects of nondimensional vertical gap space (C/D) between the cylinder and the plate ranging from 0.1 to 0.8 were considered. Simulations were carried out at a fixed Reynolds number of 500. The numerical results show that the gap space is a key parameter of the flow and heat transfer characteristics. In cases of small gap space, a pair of large-scale vortices and different shapes of vortices are formed along with the plate. The heat transfer effect is improved in the upstream and downstream areas of the plate but deteriorated in the middle area. In cases of large gap space, large-scale vortices disappear and a single vortex is formed near the middle area of the plate, which improves the heat transfer effect there. For special cases of C/D = 0.3 and 0.6, the heat transfer enhancement caused by flow instability is discussed in detail. These results could provide theoretical guidance for the design of heat exchanger equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]