Theoretical and experimental investigation was conducted to explore microscale boiling nucleation characteristics.By using a statistical mechanics approach

the effect of spatial scale on the bubble nucleation in capillary tubes was analyzed and the superheat temperature of liquid heated in capillary tubes was theoretically derived as a function of spatial scale.The boiling phenomena were observed and the nucleation temperatures were measured for four kinds of fluids (water

methanol

ethanol

and carbon tetrachloride) boiled on a platinum wire confined in capillary tubes.The comparisons indicate reasonable coincidence between theoretical findings and experimental observations.