In this paper, new experimental flow boiling heat transfer results in micro-scale tubes are presented. The experimental data were obtained in a horizontal 2.32 mm I.D. stainless steel tube with heating length of 464 mm, R134a as working fluid, mass velocities ranging from 50 to 600 kg/m~(2)s, heat flux from 5 to 55 kW/m~(2), exit saturation temperatures of 22, 31 and 41 deg C, and vapor qualities from 0.05 to 0.98. Flow pattern characterization was also performed from images obtained by high speed filming. Heat transfer coefficient results from 2 to 14 kW/m~(2)K were measured. It was found that the heat transfer coefficient is a strong function of the saturation pressure, heat flux, mass velocity and vapor quality. The experimental data were compared against the following micro-scale flow boiling predictive methods from the literature: Saitoh et al., Kandlikar, Zhang et al. and Thome et al. Comparisons against these methods based on the data segregated according to flow patterns were also performed. Though not satisfactory, Saitoh et al. worked the best and was able of capturing most of the experimental heat transfer trends.
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