Journal article 1507 views
Nature's moisture harvesters: a comparative review
Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, Volume: 9, Issue: 3, Start page: 031002
Swansea University Authors: Tegwen Malik , Marc Clement, David Gethin
Full text not available from this repository: check for access using links below.
DOI (Published version): 10.1088/1748-3182/9/3/031002
Abstract
Nature has adapted different methods for surviving dry, arid, xeric conditions. It is the focus of this comparative review to pull together the relevant information gleaned from the literature that could be utilized to design moisture harvesting devices informed by biomimetics. Most water harvesting...
Published in: | Bioinspiration & Biomimetics |
---|---|
ISSN: | 1748-3182 1748-3190 |
Published: |
IOP Publishing
2014
|
Online Access: |
Check full text
|
URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa22357 |
Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Abstract: |
Nature has adapted different methods for surviving dry, arid, xeric conditions. It is the focus of this comparative review to pull together the relevant information gleaned from the literature that could be utilized to design moisture harvesting devices informed by biomimetics. Most water harvesting devices in current use are not informed by nature and those that do are usually based on a biomimetic principle that has been based on one species only. This review draws on the published literature to establish a list of species (animals (vertebrates/invertebrates) and plants) whose habitat is in mainly dry or arid regions and that are known to harvest airborne moisture. Key findings have been outlined and review comments and discussion set out. Following this, surface feature convergences have been identified, namely hexagonal microstructures, groove-like and cone-like geometries. This has been coupled with direction of water flow that is driven by surface energy. As far as the authors are aware, this convergent evolution has not been brought together in this manner before. In the future this information could be translated into an engineered device for collecting water from airborne sources. |
---|---|
Issue: |
3 |
Start Page: |
031002 |