Micro-scale drop dynamics for heat transfer enhancement

With rapid advances in micro-device fabrication, computational techniques, and diagnostic tools, there is a significant interest in applying micro-scale fluid dynamics and heat transfer to flow control, flight vehicle protection, and thermal management. Utilizing energy transfer associated with phase change, multiphase systems offer many new opportunities. To elucidate the main scientific issues and technical implications, recent research addressing the interplay between capillarity, moving boundaries, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and phase change of micro-scale multiphase systems is reviewed. The parametric variations in contact angle, surface tension, impact velocity, and liquid viscosity related to drop impingement and heat transfer are discussed.