Boiling at Macro- and Microscale: Totally Neglected Universal Context

A paper discusses consequences of the neglect of universal features of macro- and microscale boiling uncovered by the basic model “theater of a director”, such as control of developed boiling heat transfer by nucleation at microscale, regardless of the inputs and composition of individual cooling mechanisms, pumping effect of growing bubble, micro-membrane pumping, and multi-factoring phenomenon. Average effective radius of nucleation sites, representing universal characteristic length of the process, irrespective to its scale, also remained outside the attention of boiling researchers. It is shown that neglect of above fundamentals and, especially, full misunderstanding with the characteristic length, turned the sphere of boiling at mini- and microscale into a purely experimental research. Even the attempts to classify boiling channels with respect to the transverse size are deprived of physical grounds. The ways to overcome the existing deadlock situation are also addressed.