In order to analyze the heat transfer enhancement and fatigue life by flow-induced vibration comprehensively, this study investigated the shell-side flow in planar elastic tube bundle heat exchanger based on a two-way fluid structure interaction using the finite volume approach and finite element method combined with a dynamic mesh scheme. This numerical approach was verified by comparing with the Zhukauskas's empirical correlation and the published experimental results. Comprehensive analysis was conducted in fatigue life and heat transfer combined with the effect of tube wall thickness, tube pitch and vibrational Reynolds number. Results indicate that the vibration amplitude is considered to depend more strongly on structural parameters because the average fluctuation 81.85% and 19.55% occur in vibration amplitude and frequency. Vibrational Reynolds number, a combination of amplitude and frequency, dominates the heat transfer enhancement resulting in the minimum heat transfer coefficient ratio 1.08 and the maximum heat transfer coefficient ratio 1.29. It is deduced that the heat transfer enhancement is obtained in the premise of satisfying the fatigue strength of tube bundle in the appropriate vibrational Reynolds number range 147-780 for the planar elastic tube bundle studied in the present paper. (C) 2018 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.