Vision article: recent progress, challenges and perspectives on boiling, condensation, solidification and related phase-change thermal phenomena

Zupančič, Matevž (author), Golobič, Iztok (author), Markides, Christos N. (author)

This vision article accompanies a Special Issue of Applied Thermal Engineering dedicated to the 9th European Thermal Sciences Conference (EUROTHERM 2024), held in Bled, Slovenia, from 10 to 13 June 2024. The conference brought together 348 participants from 34 countries and featured eight plenary lectures, seven special sessions, and 234 peer-reviewed proceedings. From this broad programme, thirteen articles were selected and extended for publication in this Special Issue. These articles, in line with general developments in the field, feature advances in boiling, condensation, spray cooling, freeze-drying, and relevant multiphase flows. Collectively, these contributions highlight recent advances in the community, which include the development and deployment of high-resolution experimental diagnostics and high-fidelity simulations aimed at advancing our mechanistic understanding of important thermal-fluid phenomena, and enabling accurate and reliable predictions for component and system design. Looking forward, further progress will require breakthroughs in several areas, including the development of predictive and validated models across scales, the demonstration of long-term robustness of materials and surfaces under realistic operating stresses, and the integration of both passive and active enhancement strategies to meet increasingly demanding operating conditions. By synthesizing the state of the art and outlining key challenges, this article provides a forward-looking perspective for scientists, researchers and engineers, and identifies promising directions for future research and innovation in multiphase heat transfer.

• Language: English
• Keywords: boiling, condensation, enhanced surfaces, microgravity, phase change, thermal modelling, two-phase flow
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.02 - Review Article
• Organization: FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 11 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 283, art. 128993
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-175904
• UDC: 532.52:536.42
• ISSN on article: 1359-4311
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2025.128993
• COBISS.SI-ID: 257112067
• Publication date in RUL: 13.11.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Applied thermal engineering
• Shortened title: Appl. therm. eng.
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 1359-4311
• COBISS.SI-ID: 1861910

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: vrenje, kondenzacija, izboljšane površine, mikrogravitacija, fazne spremembe, toplotno modeliranje, dvofazni tok