TY - JOUR
T1 - Geometry for low-inertia aerosol capture
T2 - Lessons from fog-basking beetles
AU - Shahrokhian, Aida
AU - Chan, Fan Kiat
AU - Feng, Jiansheng
AU - Gazzola, Mattia
AU - King, Hunter
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/2/1
Y1 - 2024/2/1
N2 - Water in the form of windborne fog droplets supports life in many coastal arid regions, where natural selection has driven nontrivial physical adaptation toward its separation and collection. For two species of Namib desert beetle whose body geometry makes for a poor filter, subtle modifications in shape and texture have been previously associated with improved performance by facilitating water drainage from its collecting surface. However, little is known about the relevance of these modifications to the flow physics that underlies droplets’ impaction in the first place. We find, through coupled experiments and simulations, that such alterations can produce large relative gains in water collection by encouraging droplets to “slip” toward targets at the millimetric scale, and by disrupting boundary and lubrication layer effects at the microscopic scale. Our results offer a lesson in biological fog collection and design principles for controlling particle separation beyond the specific case of fog-basking beetles.
AB - Water in the form of windborne fog droplets supports life in many coastal arid regions, where natural selection has driven nontrivial physical adaptation toward its separation and collection. For two species of Namib desert beetle whose body geometry makes for a poor filter, subtle modifications in shape and texture have been previously associated with improved performance by facilitating water drainage from its collecting surface. However, little is known about the relevance of these modifications to the flow physics that underlies droplets’ impaction in the first place. We find, through coupled experiments and simulations, that such alterations can produce large relative gains in water collection by encouraging droplets to “slip” toward targets at the millimetric scale, and by disrupting boundary and lubrication layer effects at the microscopic scale. Our results offer a lesson in biological fog collection and design principles for controlling particle separation beyond the specific case of fog-basking beetles.
KW - atmospheric water harvesting
KW - bioinspired engineering
KW - fluid dynamics
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U2 - 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae077
DO - 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae077
M3 - Article
C2 - 38426122
AN - SCOPUS:85186373252
SN - 2752-6542
VL - 3
JO - PNAS Nexus
JF - PNAS Nexus
IS - 2
M1 - pgae077
ER -