An experimental investigation was conducted to observe bubble slippage phenomenon on heating wires during subcooled boiling, and dynamic models were proposed to describe the bubble dynamics and understand the physical nature of these dynamical phenomena. Both experimental and theoretical evidences indicate that the thermocapillary effect of the bubble interface was the most important for the bubble slippage. The drag force caused by bubble motion is considered as the effectual viscosity including viscous effect and thermocapillary force, and it had a linear relation with the bubble velocity. The behavior of the stable bubble slippage and its startup process were theoretically investigated using bubble dynamical models, and different bubble dynamical phenomena were also described and discussed. The theoretical results were in a reasonable agreement with the experimental observations. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.