Mesoscale and Microscale Phase-Change Heat Transfer

This chapter discusses the mesoscale and microscale phase-change heat transfer. The chapter focuses on the boiling and condensation heat transfer processes occurring in various meso- or micro-devices such as heat exchangers, heat sinks, heat pipes, thermal inkjet printheads, and thermal microbubble actuators. The chapter also reviews the most recent literature on phase change heat transfer phenomena in these devices. The chapter discusses many new phase change heat transfer phenomena such as bubble growth and collapse under pulse heating, effects of dissolved gas, wall roughness, corners, and tube diameter of the channels and size of the heater on the nucleation temperature in microchannels. New flow patterns and instabilities in flow boiling and flow condensation in microchannels because of surface tension effects have also been illustrated in the chapter. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the process of flow condensation in meso- or micro-channels.