Theoretical simulation of explosive boiling

The purpose of this paper is to describe the complex thermal and mass transfer processes taking place in a liquid as the limit of superheat is approached and to develop a set of criteria for estimating the limit of superheat in practical cases relevant to some MEMS applications, where an extremely small liquid volume may be heated non-uniformly. A mechanistic model is presented for estimating the spatial location and time for reaching the limit of superheat in a non-uniformly heated volume of liquid.