Aerodynamic collection efficiency of fog water collectors

Fog water collectors (EWC) can provide water to arid zones with persistent advection and orographic fog. A key feature of any FWC is the mesh used to capture fog droplets. Two relevant mesh characteristics are its shade coefficient and the characteristics of the fibers used to weave or knit the mesh. This paper develops a simple superposition model to analyze the effect of these factors on the Aerodynamic Collection Efficiency (ACE) of FWCs. Due to the simplicity of the model it cannot be directly applied to actual FWC meshes, and serve only for guidance on the order of magnitude of the optimum shade coefficient and the corresponding ACE. The model shows that there is a maximum ACE of the order of 20-24.5% for shade coefficients between 0.5 and 0.6, for the particular mesh simulated. Aerodynamic collection efficiency can be increased by making the FWC concave and improving the aerodynamics of the mesh fibers. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.