Fog Water Collection Efficiency
The Influence of Collector Geometry
Anna Goense (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences)
Nick van de Giesen – Mentor
Rolf Hut – Mentor
Sebastiaan Heijman – Mentor
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Abstract
Fog harvesting is a sustainable drinking water solution for arid climates. Previous studies have developed an analytical model to predict the fog water collection efficiency as a product of aerodynamic and deposition efficiency as independent factors. In this study, we tested the assumption that deposition efficiency stays unchanged when the geometry of the fog catcher is adjusted. We assessed the collection efficiency of both straight and curved fog water collectors using computational fluid dynamics models and performed controlled experiments in a climatic wind tunnel on sample fog water collectors. The analytical model disregards convex fog harvesters because their lower drag coefficient reduces the aerodynamic efficiency of the fog harvester. The results of the CFD models show that efficiency can be doubled if fog catchers are built convex facing the wind. The wind tunnel experiments support the results from the CFD models. The results of this study show that for convex fog harvesters, although less fog passes through the net, the deposition efficiency increases resulting in a net increase of water collection.