Selected Papers from the First International Conference on Microchannels and Minichannels

摘要

Microchannels and minichannels have received tremendous attention in the last couple of years. Research is being conducted worldwide in traditional heat transfer laboratories as well as in newly formed mi-crofluidics or MEMS based facilities. In an effort to provide a forum for this worldwide effort, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) organized the First International Conference on Microchannels and Minichannels in April 24-25, 2003. This special issue of Heat Transfer Engineering contains some selected papers from this conference. Among the major drivers for the heat transfer research in microchannels and minichannels, electronic cooling perhaps tops the list. The first paper by Schmidt of IBM introduces the needs and specific applications of microchannels in electronic cooling. Moving from heat sinks to direct chip cooling is a challenge that is put forth in front of the heat transfer community. Single-phase (liquid) heat transfer and pressure drop issues are addressed by Celata. As the channel dimension becomes smaller, the continuum model needs to be modified for gas flow. This issue is addressed by Colin et al. in their paper. Further discussion on single-phase liquid flow and oscillating two-phase flow is provided in Nishio's paper. The onset on nucleate boiling becomes an important consideration in microchannel flows. Piasecka and Poniewski address the issue of hysteresis under these conditions. The low surface tension of carbon dioxide yields some very interesting two-phase flow patterns, which are presented by Petterson.