A novel heat transfer enhancement (HTE) roughness with V-shaped ribs and deepened scales is devised. Performances of heat transfer and pressure drop in a rectangular channel fitted with such HTE surfaces are experimentally examined for both forward and backward flows in the Re range of 1000-30000. Relative to the smooth-walled pipe flow conditions, HTE ratios for the present test channel with forward and backward flows, respectively, reach 9.5-13.6 and 9-12.3 for laminar flows and 6.8-6.3 and 5.7-4.3 for turbulent flows. Comparisons of heat transfer data, pressure-drop measurements and thermal performance factors with previous results collected from varieties of HTE devices demonstrate the superiorities of this compound HTE device. The decrease of HTE ratio as Re increases for turbulent flows, which is a common setback for several HTE elements, is almost diminished in the channel fitted with present compound HTE surfaces. Experimental correlations of heat transfer and friction coefficient for the tested channel with forward and backward flows are derived for design applications. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.