Use of Triply Periodic Minimal Surface Lattices for Heat Transfer Applications: A Systematic Literature Investigation

The scientific interest in Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) lattices for thermal applications has grown exponentially in recent years, largely driven by the advances in additive manufacturing. However, the lack of a transparent and reproducible selection methodology in previously published reviews hinders the clarity and comparability of findings. This paper adopts and customizes the APISSER framework, a structured and repeatable method that guides literature reviews through five steps: defining research questions, identifying sources, screening studies, extracting data, and reporting results. This approach is applied to investigate the use of TPMS lattices in heat-transfer applications, including heat sinks and heat exchangers. The study covers 170 peer-reviewed journal articles from 2000 to 2024, analyzing key aspects such as application domain, topology, working fluid, flow regime, additive manufacturing method, and numerical modeling details. Results show a predominance of numerical studies, with the Gyroid and Diamond topologies being the most investigated. These structures are frequently modeled as porous media, especially for estimating pressure drops, although detailed thermal analysis often relies on full-resolution geometries. Water and air are the most common working fluids, while turbulence modeling remains limited to RANS approaches. The structured methodology adopted ensures high reproducibility and provides a quantitative foundation for addressing the identified knowledge gaps, guiding future experimental and computational research.