BOILING HEAT TRANSFER WITH CONTROLLED ARRAYS OF NUCLEATION SITES ON SILICON SURFACES

This project is based on a previous project GR/M89034 and the resulting international collaboration that is still producing publications. The international participants provide at minimal cost the essential numerical simulation and expertise on nonlinear dynamics of complex systems. The project exploits microfabrication of innovative devices that have already been proven at Edinburgh. Further microfabrication in state of the art facilities at Edinburgh will be provided at very low cost.The applicants are confident that the project will make a significant contribution to the understanding of interactions between nucleation sites and therefore to the modelling of nucleate boiling. The risky part of the project is the attempt to implement localised control of a large array of nucleation sites. So far as the proposers are aware, this has never been attempted before. The risk is reduced by the progression through good physical understanding of interactions but success also depends on the nonlinear dynamics of an extremely complex system. If successful, this approach will provide a means of removing large but spatially variable heat fluxes with little variation in temperature. It will be applicable to the thermal management of highly-rated electronic devices and extremely exothermic reactors.