An analog between convection and conduction with heat sources is made to have a further understanding of the mechanism of convective heat transfer. There are three ways to raise the strength of heat sources/convection terms, and consequently to enhance the heat transfer: (a) increasing Reynolds and/or Prandtl number, (b) increasing the fullness of dimensionless velocity and/or temperature profiles, (c) increasing the included angle between the dimensionless velocity and temperature gradient vectors. Some approaches of heat transfer enhancement are suggested based on such a novel concept of heat transfer enhancement. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
