Scope

Heat and mass transfer processes occur ubiquitously in our daily lives, yet they also play central roles in many emerging technologies and socio-technological grand challenges. Contemporary research interest spans length scales ranging from nanometers, for example in electronic devices, to thousands of kilometers, in climate change studies for example. The subject of heat transfer seems to undergo periodic re-awakenings, as its special status in the Second Law of Thermodynamics maintains its relevance as other exciting technologies are developed and harnessed. Mass transfer, on the other hand, has seen its importance and research interest grow largely in concert with advances in medicine as well as emerging environmental concerns. In both cases, the subjects are highly interdisciplinary, often involving science and other engineering fields ranging from physics, chemistry, mechanics, optics, electronics, and medicine, among many others. Some areas of the field, such as steady-state continuum/diffusive transport, have reached advanced industrial status and have been integrated into optimized mass-produced products. Many other areas are still emerging and provide new scientific and engineering challenges to the research community.

Examples of ongoing and future needs for new scientific and engineering understanding include, for example, heterogeneous interfaces and composite materials, the effects of low dimensionality, transport with coupled carriers, the role of chemical reactions and surface phenomena, transport in biological media, the need for smaller and less invasive control systems, system- level thermodynamic optimization, transport in extreme conditions, application to advanced manufacturing technologies, and rigorous characterization of non-equilibrium and transient processes. The grand challenges in heat and mass transfer also include an imperative to develop ecologically benign technologies over complete product life cycles, and to incorporate advances in advanced manufacturing technologies, such as additive manufacturing, rapid prototyping, and mass customization.

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer publishes articles on the most outstanding discoveries across a wide spectrum of transport-related research. The mission of Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer is to bring all related areas together in a unified place using the unique Frontiers platform for open-access publishing and research networking, which provides an equal opportunity for all to seek, share and create knowledge. In doing so, the venue will seek to incorporate evolving technical communications capabilities, such as interactive content, to better elucidate the work of our contributors and enhance the readership’s understanding. The mission of Frontiers is to place publishing back in the hands of working scientists and to promote an interactive, fair, and efficient review process.

Articles are peer-reviewed according to the Frontiers review guidelines, which evaluate manuscripts on objective editorial criteria. The major approaches of research in heat and mass transfer solicited and expected in this journal include but are not limited to analysis, design, experimental validation, fabrication, instrumentation, manufacturing, materials, modeling, and simulation of related transport devices, components and systems.

Submission

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