The present study numerically investigates two-dimensional laminar fluid flow and heat transfer past a circular cylinder near a moving wall. Numerical simulations to calculate the fluid flow and heat transfer past a circular cylinder are performed for different Reynolds numbers varying in the range of 60-200 and a fixed Prandtl numbers of 0.7 (air) in the range of 0.1 <= G/D <= 4, where G/D is the ratio of the gap between the cylinder and a moving wall, G and the cylinder diameter, D. The flow and thermal fields become the steady state below the critical gap ratios of 0.8, 0.4 and 0.2 for the Reynolds numbers of 60, 80 and 100, respectively. As the gap ratio decreases, the magnitude of lift coefficient for all Reynolds numbers increased significantly with diminishing G/D due to the ground effect. The cases of Reynolds numbers of 60, 80 and 100 revealed the sharp slope of drag coefficient in the range of the gap ratio where the flow transfers from the unsteady state to the steady state. As the Reynolds number decreases, the variation of Nusselt is much significant and increases considerably with decreasing G/D. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.