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Performance improvement of heat exchangers is important since their size and manufacturing cost can be decreased. This study aims to evaluate two techniques, namely use of nanofluid and employment of vortex generator (VG) applicable in performance improvement of a fin–plate heat exchanger. In the present article, a numerical investigation is carried out on a fin–plate heat exchanger by considering effects of employment of hybrid nanofluid, MWCNT-Fe3O4/water with 0.3% concentration, and winglet VG with different angles. In this regard, computational fluid dynamics is applied by using SST turbulence models. Results of the simulation reveal that employment of the nanofluid and VG induces enhancement in the heat transfer. Heat transfer improvement by use of VG is mainly due to the boundary layer reduction and intensification of turbulent flow and nanofluids enhance thermal performance owing to the increase of the fluid thermal conductivity. The augmentation in the heat transfer in case of using VG was dependent on its configuration. Moreover, simultaneous usage of both of them would further augment the heat transfer. The maximum heat transfer rate improvement in case of using the nanofluid without VG, with vortex generator and without the nanofluid and with the nanofluid and vortex generator is around 5.2, 69.2 and 74.6%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]