Evolution of the constructal design application on fins and cavities as a passive element for heat transfer problems

The demand for efficient thermal management technologies is increasing as chip technology advances and large-scale data centers grow. High-conductivity fins and cavities are widely employed to enhance heat transfer. However, identifying the best fin or cavity configuration and understanding how it improves thermal performance remains a challenge. In this context, constructal design has been extensively applied to develop flow architectures that enhance access to internal flow and reduce thermodynamic imperfections. This work systematically reviews the evolution and application of constructal design in heat transfer problems involving fins and cavities. A total of 195 research articles from two major databases were analyzed. This study shows how fin and cavity designs have evolved and how these changes have influenced heat transfer performance. A bibliometric analysis also illustrates the growth of this research field and identifies recent research trends. Cavity geometries evolved from simple I-shaped cavities to complex branching configurations, including H-, X-, double-Y-, and tree-shaped designs. Under the same comparison conditions, the best-performing isothermal cavity was the tree-shaped configuration with four branches, which reduced the dimensionless maximum excess temperature by up to 93.6% compared with the baseline I-shaped cavity. Several fin configurations were also evaluated, including disk-shaped, circular, tree-shaped, Y-shaped, rectangular, and pin-fin arrays. The results indicate that the transition from simple fin geometries to hierarchical and branching designs improves thermal performance. The research field continues to grow, with recent studies focusing on mixed and forced convection and the application of constructal design to thermal energy storage systems with phase change materials.