A review of recent progress on nano/micro scale nucleate boiling fundamentals

Abstract

Recent research progress in the area of nano/micro scale nucleate boiling is reviewed and an up-to-date summary is provided with a focus on the advances of fundamental boiling physics. This review examines nano/micro scale pool boiling experimental and theoretical/numerical work reported in the open literature. On the experimental side, the topics covered are moving contact line, critical heat flux, boiling curve, nucleation, single bubble boiling cycle, bubble coalescence boiling cycle, heater size effect, nanofluid, and nanoscale-structured heater surface. For the theoretical/numerical work, continuum mechanics modeling of the micro-region and molecular dynamics modeling of the nano-region are included.