Flow boiling in microchannels has received enormous interest in academic research
over the past few decades because of its importance in the thermal management of
micro-structured devices. A vast number of experimental and theoretical studies have
been reported and an increasing number of computational studies of microchannel flow
boiling have been performed in the past few years. This article provides a review of the
previous studies of flow boiling in microchannels, with a focus on the computational
work. We present the governing equations, boundary conditions, numerical methods
and the mathematical treatment of phase change used. Some important numerical
studies are reviewed in detail and their strengths and weaknesses are presented. Finally,
a summary of the current status of modelling in this area is provided.