article · Energy Technology
Triply periodic minimal surface structures offer high surface areas and structural stability, making them effective for thermal management and heat transfer enhancement. An extensive survey covers design methods, software tools, commercial materials, and three-dimensional printing techniques used to manufacture these geometries. Identified uses span multiple sectors, notably heat exchangers, battery cooling, latent heat storage, hydrogen storage, and membrane distillation. Potential also exists in photovoltaic thermal collectors, fuel cells, and sorption systems such as atmospheric water harvesting, adsorption cooling, thermochemical energy storage, and desiccant air conditioning. Examining existing research gaps and prospective directions helps map out how these minimal surface designs can improve energy utilisation across diverse thermal systems while addressing remaining barriers to wider commercialisation.
Efficient thermal management is critical for modern energy systems, electronics, and clean technologies. Triply periodic minimal surface structures maximise surface area within compact volumes, allowing devices like batteries, heat exchangers, and cooling units to transfer heat more effectively. Understanding how to design and print these architectures helps address growing demands for energy efficiency across storage, cooling, and water harvesting technologies.
Manufacturing routes using commercial materials and three-dimensional printing point toward applications in battery thermal management, heat exchangers, fuel cells, and water harvesting. The technology currently sits at an early-stage to applied research level, as commercialisation barriers and research gaps remain to be resolved. Relevant users include manufacturers and engineering developers working on clean energy hardware, electronics cooling, desalination, and thermal storage systems.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
This review highlights the latest developments of triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) structures with the aim of the system's energy utilization. TPMS structures have gained widespread recognition due to their significant heat transfer (e.g., enhanced surface area) and diverse mechanical properties (e.g., structural stability), making them highly valuable in numerous thermal applications. A comprehensive survey of the design approaches, software tools, commercial materials, and 3D printing techniques of TPMS‐based structures is provided. Research gaps and future perspectives for the commercialization of TMPS structures are identified. Moreover, the potential applications of TPMS‐based structures for heat transfer augmentation and thermal management are discussed. TPMS‐based structures are promising topologies for heat exchangers on account of their intrinsically outstanding specific surface area. In this context, TPMS‐based structures have received considerable attention for various applications, including heat exchangers, latent heat storage, hydrogen storage, battery cooling/thermal management, and membrane distillation. Besides, distinct potential applications of TPMS‐based structures are proposed for heat transfer intensification and thermal management of photovoltaic/thermal collectors and fuel cells. Meanwhile, new proposals for using TPMS‐based structures for different sorption‐based applications, notably adsorption cooling/desalination systems, adsorption atmospheric water harvesting, thermochemical energy storage, and desiccant air conditioning, are nominated for forward‐looking perspectives.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1002/ente.202301287
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
