Heatlines (1983) versus synergy (1998)

A picture is worth a thousand words. This article is about a picture known as “heatlines” since 1983, and “synergy” since 1998. Both concepts, heatlines and synergy, are about visualizing the physics of convection, which is the combination (superposition) of heat conduction lines and enthalpy flow lines over a material in motion. Heatlines and synergy are reviewed here comparatively. This comparison reveals that synergy is a remake of heatlines, and that synergy has no physical connection with heat transfer enhancement. At bottom, it has become a lot easier to take an existing idea change some key words and drawings and publish the old idea as new.