Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) coolers can profoundly reduce hazardous NOx emissions from diesel engines. Nevertheless, the formation of deposits on EGR surfaces causes design uncertainty and maintenance problems. The present study underlines how changing the EGR surface structure for the same inlet velocity can result in substantial increase in shear stress, which otherwise would be needed for an effective deposit suppression. Various structures have been developed, then studied numerically using computational fluid dynamics. The results have been compared with a baseline flat plate rectangular EGR cooler. The numerical findings show that shear stress is increased from 150 to 350% while the overall pressure drop is always below 550 mbar. The geometrical modifications also cause a minor reduction of up to 7% in effective heat transfer area of EGR.