In the present paper, a novel shell-and-tube heat exchanger is proposed for the application of oil cooler. It is numerically investigated compared to a rod baffles shell-and-tube heat exchanger using the commercial software FLUENT 63 and GAMBIT 2.3. The results of heat transfer, flow characteristics, and comprehensive performance are analyzed for both tube-side and shell-side with verifications of correlations and experimental apparatus. For tube-side, the novel heat exchanger demonstrates evidently excellent overall performance; while for shell-side, the novel heat exchanger illustrates slightly lower comprehensive performance than the rod baffles one. The path lines, pressure field, and temperature field are analyzed and the multi-fields synergy principle is adopted to evaluate the synergy extent between velocity, temperature, and pressure fields. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.