# Bioinspired Heat Exchangers: A Multi-Scale Review of Thermo-Hydraulic Performance Enhancement

## TL;DR

This paper reviews bioinspired designs for heat exchangers, showing how nature-inspired structures can improve efficiency and performance.

## Contribution

The paper introduces a multi-scale framework for evaluating bioinspired heat exchangers, emphasizing cross-scale analysis over single-metric evaluation.

## Key findings

- Surface-scale bioinspiration reduces icing and fouling through wettability control.
- Texture-scale designs balance drag reduction and heat transfer using shark skin and fish scale patterns.
- Network-scale structures inspired by leaf veins and lung architectures enhance fluid distribution and mixing.

## Abstract

Heat exchangers are central to energy and process industries, yet performance is bounded by the trade-off between higher heat transfer and greater pressure drop. This review targets indirect-type heat exchangers and organizes bioinspired strategies through a multi-scale lens of surface, texture, and network scales. It provides a structured comparison of their thermo-hydraulic behaviors and evaluation methods. At the surface scale, control of wettability and liquid-infused interfaces suppresses icing and fouling and stabilizes condensation. At the texture scale, microstructures inspired by shark skin and fish scales regulate near-wall vortices to balance drag reduction with heat-transfer enhancement. At the network scale, branched and bicontinuous pathways inspired by leaf veins, lung architectures, and triply periodic minimal surfaces promote uniform distribution and mixing, improving overall performance. The survey highlights practical needs for manufacturing readiness, durability, scale-up, and validation across operating ranges. By emphasizing analysis across scales rather than reliance on a single metric, the review distills design principles and selection guidelines for next-generation bioinspired heat exchangers.