Enhanced Boiling Heat Transfer in Second Generation Microchannels: Part A — Methods and Preliminary Results

This paper reviews literature on conventional scale boiling enhancement techniques by means of reentrant cavities and discusses various avenues by which the knowledge obtained from that research can be used to enhance boiling in microchannels. Fabrication techniques developed by the Micro Thermal-Fluids Laboratory at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute together with the Advanced Microsystems Materials Laboratory at McGill University are discussed, and preliminary data are given. These results demonstrate the potential for improving boiling heat transfer characteristics in microchannels and introduce the next generation of microchannel heat transfer technology.