International Workshop on New Understanding in Nanoscale/Microscale Phase Change Phenomena

Since the industrial revolution energy exchange has been a significant issue in many mechanical devices motivating for decades research in finding more efficient ways of dissipating energy. The progress in micro and nanotechnology has allowed the development of every time smaller devices. However, removing the heat produced in such devices has become a major obstacle in high heat fluxes devices such as microprocessors, sensors, medical devices, and laser diodes. In order to tackle this problem, researchers have focused their attention on phase change phenomena as an enabling technology for allowing the removal of high heat fluxes from small surfaces. However, large enough heat transfer coefficients and high critical heat flux as those demanded by new technological applications cannot be achieved with present cooling solutions. In this context, nanotechnology has opened the potential of boosting heat transfer performance via nanoscale surface manipulation technology allowing the creation of surfaces with unique transport properties. However it has not been possible to achieve the required goal in terms of heat transfer up to now. One limitation has been the limited understanding of the micro-nano heat transfer mechanisms from the wall to the working fluid. The present workshop will gather more than 50 international leading experts in the area of nanoscale/microscale phase change phenomena for sharing the new development in this growing area. Most of these groups have been focusing their research of the past decade on micro- and nano- structured materials for heat transfer enhancement.