[en] Because convective heat transfer is enhanced in flow past rough surfaces, much experimental and analytical effort over the past several decades has been devoted to the evaluation of artificial roughening for potential application to the heat transfer surfaces of gas-cooled reactors. Unfortunately, much of the analytical development in this field has been inadequately explained in the literature; this has led to misinterpretation of some of the subsequent experimental findings, compounding the uncertainty. This work provides a critical review of the underlying assumptions, theoretical foundations, and supporting experimental evidence for the analytical procedures in current use for the evaluation of roughness effects. It is a concise presentation of the available formulations with recommendations concerning their applicability to rough rod bundles