In the present numerical investigation, the effect of splitter plate length on fluid flow characteristics past an equilateral triangular cylinder apex facing the flow configuration is studied. Simulations are carried out by using in-house solver based on Streamline Upwind/Petrov-Galerkin (SUPG) finite element method in laminar regime. The range of Reynolds numbers (Re) based on side (b) of the triangular cylinder is varied from 50 to 200 and the splitter plate length (L) is varied from L/b = 0 to = 6. The effect of splitter plate length on parameters like lift and drag are studied. It is observed that drag decreases with the attachment of splitter plate. In addition, vortex shedding suppression is observed for Re = 50 - 150 whereas, for Re = 200 vortex shedding suppression is not observed even for plate length of L/b = 6. The obtained results indicate that for a specific value of Re drag is minimized at a particular splitter plate length. The drag is minimized approximately from 9% to 57% based on Re by attaching a splitter plate to the triangular cylinder. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.