Cooling is of the utmost importance in a host of crucial technological applications, using boiling liquids as a way to release heat in an effective and environmentally friendly way. The new research will improve our ability to do this by bolstering a deep understanding of phenomena such as the formation of bubbles at very small scales within both fluids and on heated solid surfaces.
The AEC team intends the new research to provide a pathway to new cooling devices promising major long-term impacts in UK industry and internationally in areas such as high power density electronics, lithium ion batteries, and the thermal management of nuclear reactors.
Dr Georgoulas said: “The innovative research we are proposing has a highly interdisciplinary nature - statistical physics, mathematical analysis, thermal engineering and fluid dynamics, as well as chemistry and surface fabrication. The advanced models can potentially be exploited in other fields too, such as ice formation on aircraft, drying procedures in the food industry, and solidification in material science and alloy production. Phase-change and statistical models are also used to describe stock prices in finance!”