The fins, modeled after the wings of the world’s fastest animal, reduce flow resistance while maintaining strong heat transfer performance.
The global economy is gradually shifting to clean energy in an effort to replace fossil fuels. One of the most challenging sectors to make this switch is aviation, which cannot rely on the same battery technology employed by the automotive industry. Instead, aircraft will likely need to employ more energy-dense fuels like hydrogen, which will require designing new aeroengines to convert this fuel into thrust.
A key component of any hydrogen aeroengine is the heat exchanger, which regulates the flow of thermal energy between the air and the hydrogen propellant. Zheng et al. designed a fin for this heat exchanger using a design inspired by the wing of a peregrine falcon.
“The peregrine…
