Description
Fog collection represents an important source of supplemental liquid for many plants and animals located in arid climates. This is especially true in coastal arid climates, which receive very little rainfall, but have frequent fog banks during the winter months. Through evolution, these plants and animals have developed ways to collect fog and then transfer that collected liquid to a desired location. Thus, fog collection consists of two important aspects: the condensation of the liquid from the fog and the transportation of that liquid to a desired location. Manmade designs of fog collecting devices can draw inspiration from natural organisms in the condensation and transportation phase of fog collection. This process is called biomimicry or bioinspired design. In this study, a 3D printed fog collection device was fabricated and tested which utilized bioinspired design of cactus spines to condense liquid from fog and a series of microcavities within microchannels based off the pitcher plant Nepenthes Alata to transfer the liquid. The fabricated spines were tested for their fog collection efficiency, and the microchannels/microcavities were tested for their transportation speed. The manufacturing integrity of both structures created by 3D printing was analyzed. Finally, the integration of the two differing structures was tested to show the enhanced efficiency of a device utilizing both structures over devices using only one of the structures.
