Turbulent flow and heat transfer characteristics around staggered tube bundles were studied using a non-orthogonal boundary fitted coordinate system and the low Reynolds .kappa. - .epsilon. turbulence model suggested by Lam and Bremhorst. The predicted flow characteristics for two tube pitches and tube arrangement showed good agreement with the experimental data except the strongly curved region. The predicted Nusselt number was compared with measurements obtained in the staggered rough bundles and it revealed the similar trend to measurements, but the location of the maximum and minimum heat transfer differed somewhat from the measurements.