Enhancement Mechanisms and Optimal Design of Multi-Morphology Triply Periodic Minimal Surface Structures for Convective Heat-Transfer Performance

Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces (TPMS) exhibit exceptional properties that render them highly suitable for high-speed aircraft surfaces, including superior convective heat transfer, lightweight strength, and aerodynamic characteristics. Despite the fact that multi-morphology TPMS structures outperform their single-unit counterparts, existing research has predominantly focused on mechanical properties, neglecting an in-depth analysis of convective heat transfer. This study introduces a pioneering parametric design approach for multi-morphology TPMS structures, utilizing interpolation functions to ensure uniform pore distribution across topological transitions. We meticulously designed four multi-morphology TPMS structures of different scales: Gyroid-gyroid-Gyroid, Primitive-primitive-Primitive, Gyroid-primitive-Gyroid, and Primitive-gyroid-Primitive. These were then subjected to extensive convective heat-transfer experiments and simulation comparisons with single-morphology Gyroid and Primitive structures. The experimental and simulation results exhibited high consistency, revealing differences in convective heat-transfer performance among various TPMS structures. Specifically, under flow rates ranging from 0.5-5 m/s, the Gyroid-gyroid-Gyroid structure demonstrated the optimal convective heat-transfer coefficient, with improvements of 13.9–23.5%, 42.9–58.1%, 29.8–41.6%, 5.3–13.8%, and 25.6–33.7% compared to the Gyroid, Primitive, Primitive-primitive-Primitive, Gyroid-primitive-Gyroid, and Primitive-gyroid-Primitive models, respectively. However, when considering all evaluation metrics comprehensively, the Gyroid-primitive-Gyroid structure exhibited the highest comprehensive heat-transfer performance, with increases of 20.3–43.7%, 134.3–294.8%, 8.7–30.1%, 31.5–100.1%, and 58.4–134.4% compared to the Gyroid, Primitive, Primitive-primitive-Primitive, Gyroid-gyroid-Gyroid, and Primitive-gyroid-Primitive models, respectively. This study not only contributes to advancing the widespread application of TPMS structures in the thermal management industry but also holds potential for bringing new technological breakthroughs in high-tech fields such as aerospace.