The present work studies the enhancement of heat transfer on a cylinder impinged by a rectangular jet in presence of a metallic grid on the slot exit. The experiments are carried out to cool a smooth cylinder, electrically heated, with a rectangular jet of air, at three Reynolds numbers in turbulent flow, i.e. Re = 5100, 10,600 and 15,300, where the Reynolds number is defined with the cylinder diameter. Three metallic grids, identified by the French classification as NF06-10-20, are employed with the solidity ratio ranging from 24.3% to 67.7%, and the same diameter of the mesh filament (0.6 mm). Fluid dynamic measurements, performed with a hot film anemometer, are done to justify the thermal results. Heat transfer measurements are presented as local and mean Nusselt numbers. The comparison with the case without grid, indicated as NF00, is done at the same mass flow rate of the jet and the same power consumption of the wind tunnel to move the jet. The main goal of the paper is to evaluate how the solidity ratio of the metallic grids influences the heat transfer. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.