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In this study, experimental investigation has been conducted on fluid flow and heat transfer of rough mini-channels with rectangular cross sections. The mini-channel considered consists of twelve identical rectangular channels with 4 mm width, 8 mm height, and 80 mm length. Air is employed as the working fluid with Reynolds number varied from 1500 to 5000. Four mini-channels were examined with different values of relative surface roughness ( ɛ ) 1.6 ∗ 10 −4 , 3.45 ∗ 10 −4 , 6.15 ∗ 10 −4 , and 10.5 ∗ 10 −4 . The friction factor ( f ), average Nusselt number ( Nu ), pressure drop penalty factor ( E f ), heat transfer enhancement factor ( E hn ), and universal evaluation parameter (PEC) were evaluated to study fluid flow and heat transfer of rough mini-channels with rectangular cross sections. The results showed that increasing the Reynolds number ( Re ) of air passing through the rectangular rough mini-channel, increases the average Nusselt number ( Nu ) and the pressure drop penalty factor ( E f ), while decreasing the friction factor ( f ) and the heat transfer enhancement factor ( E hn ) which, has a great effect on the universal evaluation parameter (PEC) rather than the pressure drop penalty factor ( E f ). Moreover, a correlation of the relative surface roughness ( ε ) and the universal evaluation parameter (PEC) was obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]