Jet impingement cooling technology is usually applied to combustor liner with large heat load. With the continuous improvement of high capacity and low emission of heavy-duty gas turbines,the research on low resistance and high cooling efficiency cooling technology is particularly important. To meet these urgent needs, based on the blue whale skin structure, a new array impingement target surface cooling structure was proposed from the perspective of bionics. The flow and heat transfer characteristics of the array impingement bionic target surface cooling structure were numerically simulated under high Reynolds number (Re) and high Heat flux density (q) conditions. The influence of groove depth (H , 1 to 3 mm), radius ratio (R/H, 1 to 3) and spacing ratio (P/H, 10 to 20) on the cooling performance of impingement target surface was analyzed. Multi-objective performance optimization of the bionic structure was carried out by using the second-order response surface approximation model (RSM) and the second-generation non-inferior sequencing genetic algorithm (NSGA-II), and the performance of the optimized structure was tested. The results show that the above optimization method is accurate and effective, and the optimal bionic structure is H = 1.212 mm, R/H = 1.132, P/H = 12.078. Compared with the plane target surface, the average Nusselt number (Nu ave), flow friction factor (f), and comprehensive thermal coefficient (F) of the optimal bionic groove structure increased by 14.5%, 1.1% and 14.1%,respectively. The structure and multi-objective optimization method proposed in this paper can provide a certain reference for the design of new efficient cooling structure of heavy-duty gas turbines combustor liner. • A innovative array jet impingement cooling structure with bionic target surface for heavy-duty turbine combustor liner is proposed. • The flow and heat transfer characteristics of the bionic target surface impinged by array jet was analyzed, and the multi-objective performance optimization is carried out. • The performance of the optimized bionic structure was tested experimentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]