UV reactors are an emerging choice as a big barrier against the pathogens present in drinking water. However, the precise role of reactor's wall roughness for cross flow ultraviolet (CF-UV) and axial flow ultraviolet (AF-UV) water disinfection reactors are unknown. In this paper, the influences of reactor's wall roughness were investigated with a view to identify their role on the performance factors namely dose distribution and reduction equivalent dose (RED). Herein, the relative effects of reactor's wall roughness on the performance of CF-UV and AF-UV reactors were also highlighted. This numerical study is a first step towards the comprehensive analysis of the effects of reactor's wall roughness for UV reactor. A numerical analysis was performed using ANSYS Fluent 15 academic version. The reactor's wall roughness has a significant effect on the RED. We found that the increase in RED is Reynolds number dependent (at lower value of turbulent Reynolds number the effects are remarkable). The effects of reactor's roughness were more pronounced for AF-UV reactor. The simulation results suggest that the study of reactor's wall roughness provides valuable insight to fully understand the effects of reactor's wall roughness and its impact on the flow behavior and other features of CF-UV and AF-UV water disinfection reactors. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.