Recently, the result of the first Minkowycz Award for the best paper published in International Journal of Heat Mass Transfer during the 5-year period from 2014 to 2018 were announced by the Award Committee. The highly cited paper entitled, "An experimental investigation of enhanced pool boiling heat transfer from surfaces with micro-/ nano-structures (Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 71 (2014), pp. 189-196)" was selected for this honor. The first author of this paper is Dong Lining (2014 PhD graduate), the second author is Associate Researcher Quan Xiaojun, and the corresponding author is Academician Cheng Ping.

This paper reports on one of the earliest experimental investigations on comparing effects of nano- and micro-sized surface structures on bubble nucleation and bubble departure characteristics in pool boiling. Based on comprehensive experimental data, it was found that nano-structures accelerate bubble departure by decreasing bubble departure diameter, delay bubble mergence, and prevent vapor film from spreading at high heat flux during boiling crisis. On the other hand, the microstructures enhance bubble nucleation by significantly increasing active nucleation site density at low heat fluxes. The paper not only gives an insightful discussion on enhanced boiling heat transfer mechanisms by nano-and micro-size structures, but also provides research directions for improving pool boiling heat transfer performance through multiscale and hierarchical surface structures.

The Minkowycz Award for best paper is a special award given by Elsevier to commemorate the contribution of Professor Minkowycz, former Editor-in-Chief of Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer (the top-notch journal in the field of heat and mass transfer), who had been the Editor-in-Chief of IJHMT for the past 40 years. A shortlist of 20 papers published in 2014-18 was first identified based on downloads, citations, and the originality of the paper. A committee consisting of Editors and Associate Editors who did not have a paper included in this shortlist were then asked to vote for their five favorite papers each based on quality and impact of the paper. The clear winner of this selection process was the paper guided by Academician Cheng Ping in School of Mechanical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Related Link: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-heat-and-mass-transfer/news/first-minkowycz-award-for-best-paper