Journal of Bionic Engineering 13 (2016) 364372

Investigation of Fog Collection on Cactus-inspired Structures

Xianhua Tan1, Tielin Shi1, Zirong Tang1, Bo Sun1, Li Du1, Zhengchun Peng2, Guanglan Liao1
1. State Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan
430074, China
2. College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518000, China

Abstract
We demonstrate the application of cactus-inspired structures for fog collection. The drop-on-cone system is modeled to
analyze Gibbs free-energy gradients, equilibrium positions and motion of drops. Normalized free energy and free energy gra-
dient are presented to characterize barrel and clam-shell drops, revealing the relations of the driving force and wettability to the
half-apex angle of the cones. Small half-apex angle results in long collecting length and weak driving force. Thus it is important
for fog collection to balance the driving force and collecting length with a suitable half-apex angle. Fog collection experiments
on cactus-inspired structures are conducted for verification. Inflection points around 1.1 are observed, where the fog collection
ability is mainly limited by the weak driving force when below the inflection points, while increases with the collecting length
when above the inflection points. These indicate that the half-apex angle at the inflection point is a compromise between the
driving force and collecting length, agreeing with the normalized functions. The results also prove that the hydrophilic cones are
more suitable for fog collection with regard to condensation and driving force. Our research offers design guidance for efficient
fog collection structure.
Keywords: FVM simulations, fog collection, drop-on-cone system, bionics, cactus-inspired structure
Copyright 2016, Jilin University. Published by Elsevier Limited and Science Press. All rights reserved.
doi: 10.1016/S1672-6529(16)60309-8

moving towards the spindle knots were driven by the

1 Introduction
In deserts where rainfall is extremely rare and un-
predictable, fog and dew are more important sources of
water for organisms such as welwitschia[1], beetles[2],
and cacti[3]. Since it is proved an efficient method to
capture available water from fog[47], fog collection has
drawn more and more attention of researchers. Beetle
inspired structures that consist of alternating hydropho-
bic and hydrophilic patterns exhibit excellent fog con-
densation and drop removal ability[8,9], while the con-
densation performance of the hydrophobic regions is
much weaker than hydrophilic ones[10]. Interestingly,
conical structures demonstrated by diverse natural[3,6] as
well as artificial[11,12] structures have exhibited excellent
fog collecting capability, and capillary effect enhances
the water transportation[13]. Ju et al. reported the out-
standing ability of spider silk to collect fog, and further
studied its fog collection mechanism. They concluded
that fog condensed into drops on the silk and the drops
surface energy gradient and differences in Laplace
pressure[3]. They fabricated Cu conical wires with gra-
dient wettability via electrochemical corrosion and
chemical modification[14], and compared the evolution
of drops on hydrophilic, hydrophobic, and gradient
cones. Bai et al.[15] demonstrated bio-inspired fibers with
periodic spindle knots, which were also proved to be
efficient in fog collection. Using azobenzene polymer
materials to control surface wettability, Feng et al.[16]
reported photo-controlled directional water gathering on
bio-inspired fibers.
Considerable efforts have been devoted to studying
the conformation shapes and the motion of drops on
fibers[1719]. Carroll investigated the expressions of drop
profiles and relationships of geometric parameters,
volume, and Laplace excess pressure[20], revealing the
equilibrium conformations of drops on thin cylinders[21].
When the contact angle increased, the conformation of a
drop on a fiber changed from an axisymmetric barrel to

Corresponding author: Guanglan Liao

E-mail: guanglan.liao@hust.edu.com
 Tan et al.: Investigation of Fog Collection on Cactus-inspired Structures 365
an asymmetric clam shell. Lorenceau et al. employed (a)

Carrolls derivation to analyze Laplace excess pressure

gradients along the axis of a conical fiber and showed
the evolution of silicone oil film through snapshots[22].
The thin liquid film formed tiny drops, moved towards
the base, and finally coalesced into one large drop. Luo
et al. analyzed the drop motion on a cone from the view
of difference in liquid pressure and took the contact
angle hysteresis into consideration[23]. The theoretical 1 mm
results were simplified to analyze the drop motion effi- (b) x II
2
ciently. Liang et al. investigated the equilibrium con- I C
B
P
formation of drops on conical fibers and the effects of 1
the gravity by the finite element method[24]. A
x0 x2
Generally, the equilibrium geometric shape of a a x1
V l Q O z
drop on conical wires is either axisymmetric barrel or an
asymmetric clam-shell[25]: the former is regular which
can be characterized by mathematic expressions[26],
(c) 15
while the latter is difficult to define mathematically, thus Critical condition
the motion of asymmetric drops on cones has been sel-
10
dom investigated in details. In this paper, we analyzed
the Gibbs free energy gradients of the drop-on-cone
5 Axisymmetric barrel
system and predicted the motion of drops along the cone drops
Clam-shell
by combining mathematical calculations with drops
0
0 20 40 60 80
Finite-Volume-Method (FVM) simulations. The evolu- ()
tion of asymmetric clam-shell drops together with axi- Fig. 1 (a) Fog collection of cactus spines; (b) the axisymmetric
symmetric barrel drops on cones was investigated in drop-on-cone model; (c) the critical condition for axisymmetric
details. Both the free energy and free energy gradient barrel and clam-shell conformations.

were normalized to characterize the performance of the

Here n = (n1 + n2)/2 and ni = x0/xi, (i=1, 2), since the
cones, and fog collection experiments were conducted
half-apex angle of the model is small. Fig. 1c displays
for verification.
the critical condition for axisymmetric barrel and
2 Theoretical calculations and simulations clam-shell conformations, where the transformation
from barrel drops to clam-shell drops will occur. When n
Fig. 1a shows the fog collection of cactus spines,
and are located in the axisymmetric barrel regions, the
and the barrel drops on cone are modeled in Fig. 1b. The
conformations of the drops maintain axisymmetric bar-
z-axis is the symmetrical axis of the conical model, and
rel shapes, otherwise, they turn in clam-shell shapes. n
the curve stands for the liquid-vapor interface. is the
increases with the increment of , indicating that the
half-apex angle, is the contact angle, points A and B are
transformation occurs at smaller local radius for a given
the triple-phase contact points, and C is the top point of
drop.
the curve. x1, x2, and x0 are the distances of A, B, and C
from the z-axis, 1 and 2 represent the angles between
2.1 Calculations of axisymmetric barrel drops on
the tangents of the curve and the z-axis at points A and B.
cones
l is the distance between the drop and the tip end. Con-
For axisymmetric barrel drops, the drop region is
tact angle hysteresis is ignored in the model. The critical
divided into two regions by OC[26], as shown in Fig. 1b.
condition for the two conformations can be expressed
We can easily obtain 1 = + a and 2 = a. According
by[21]
to the derivation from Refs. [19,24], the curve can be
2n3 cos 3n 2 + 1 = 0, (1) expressed by
 366 Journal of Bionic Engineering (2016) Vol.13 No.3

dz x 2 + ai xi x0 between the free energy and variables, the normalization

= , (2)
dx (x 0
2
x 2
)( x 2
ai xi
2 2
) factor[17], R = 3 3V / 4 , is introduced and we obtain

x cos i xi
where ai = 0 . The subscript (i = 1, 2) refer-
x0 xi cos i
ring to regions I and II, respectively. The distance be-
tween the drop and the cone tip is l = x1/tan . The Gibbs
free energy of the drop-on-cone system can be calculated
by[26]
G = Gc + ( ALV ASL cos ) LV ,
where Gc = svAcone. A is the interface surface area, is
the surface tension, and subscripts LV, SL, and SV refer
to the liquid-vapor, solid-liquid and solid-vapor inter-
faces, respectively. Acone is the total surface area of the
cone. We obtain the Gibbs free energy gradients along
the z-axis, Ggrad = dG/dl. When a drop moves along the
cone, its volume is constant. Using the constant volume
constraints and the method reported in Ref. [24], we can
calculated G and then obtained Ggrad.
Fig. 2a shows the plots of G as a function of l under
= 30, = 5, and V = 0.1 L, 0.2 L, 0.4 L, and
0.8 L. We observe an equilibrium position marked by
circles with the minimum Gibbs free energy, where the
equilibrium distance defined as leq increases with the
drop volume increasing. To simplify the relationship
G (nJ)
G = G / R 2
x = x1 / R . (4)

l = x tan
Fig. 2b shows the results after normalization, in
which the curves of V = 0.1 L, 0.2 L, 0.4 L, and
0.8 L overlap under = 30, = 5, because the drops
(3) on a cone are similarly shaped during the drop evolu-
tion[27,28]. When x is fixed at a specific value, we obtain
V R 3
G = A R
2
. (5)
l = x tan R
The plot of leq marked by circles in Fig. 2b shrinks
to a single point, meaning leq corresponds to the same
value of x . Thus, leq is proportional to the drop radius R.
Fig. 2c shows Ggrad corresponding to = 30, V = 0.1 L,
and = 0.5, 1, 2, 5 and 10. Ggrad at = 5 and 10
drops quickly as l increases, where the zero crossing
points represent the equilibrium positions and the nega-
tive values represent the opposite direction. Slow gra-
dients are found, and long leq is expected, for = 0.5, 1,
and 2. Ggrad stays at low values corresponding to small
G

l
Ggrad (nJmm1)

Ggrad (nJmm1)

Fig. 2 The calculation results of free energy and free energy gradients. (a) and (b) G as a function of l (a) before and (b) after normalization
under = 30, = 5, 0.2 L, 0.4 L, and 0.8 L, where the circular mark shows the equlibrium position; (c) and (d) Ggrad as a function of
l under (c) = 30, = 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10 and (d) = 2, = 5, 15, 30, 45. Here V = 0.1 L and LV = 0.072 Nm1.
 Tan et al.: Investigation of Fog Collection on Cactus-inspired Structures
Fig. 3 The evolution of barrel drops on cones with R = 50 m under (a) = 15 and = 1.13; (b) = 15 and = 0.57; and (c) = 30 and
= 0.57.
driving force when = 0.5. Fig. 2d presents the results
for = 2, V = 0.1 L, and = 5, 15, 30, and 45. Ggrad
decreases as increases, indicating that enhanced hy-
drophilicity offers larger driving force for directional
collection. Meanwhile, Ggrad decreases with the incre-
ment of l, agreeing with Eq. (11) of Ref. [23].
Here we define the effective length for collection as
the collecting length, which equals to leq in theory. Ac-
tually, leq is longer than the length of the conical struc-
ture when and are small, and the collecting length
equals to the cone length. When preparing the cone with
specific diameters, long collecting length means greater
surface area for fog collection, and small usually cor-
responds to long collecting length for hydrophilic cones.
Therefore, in order to obtain excellent directional col-
lection ability, which requires sufficient collecting
length and driving force, optimized and small should
be chosen for axisymmetric barrel drops.
2.2 FVM simulations of the drop-on-cone system
The simulations were conducted by using the VOF
model of the commercial software Fluent. The cone was
horizontal with a drop on it. The drop motion was
simulated with constant computational time steps
t = 2107s. The parameters of the drop-on-cone sys-
tem, such as ALV, ALS and position, were exported from
the simulation data via the software CFD-POST, and
then G and Ggrad can be calculated.
Fig. 3 presents the simulation results that the barrel
drops, with the radius of R, initially remain static on the
cones and then move under the driving force generated
by the Laplace excess pressure. Gravity has little influ-
ence on the system at such small scale[29,30]. The drop
motion under R = 50 m, = 15, and = 2.3 is shown
in video on https://youtu.be/CMMlObDHtss. The drop
moves quickly when located near the tip, and decelerates
367
as it moves toward the base end, in agreement with the
decreasing Ggrad in Figs. 2c and 2d. When decreases
from 1.13 (tan = 0.02) to 0.57 (tan = 0.01), the drop
slows down, as shown in Figs. 3a and 3b. However,
when increases from 15 to 30, deceleration expected
in theoretical calculations is not observed in
Figs. 3b and 3c. It is because that the barrel drop under
= 15 is thinner than that under = 30, which results in
a smaller hydraulic diameter and a larger liquid-solid
contact area and leads to larger friction[31]. Therefore,
small and large offer large driving force for direc-
tional collection, in accordance with the calculations.
Clam-shell drops are common in the fog collection
on biological structures[3,6]. In this case, the calculation
model mentioned above is no longer available while
FVM analysis is an alternative method. The evolution of
clam-shell drops is displayed in Figs. 4a4d, in which
the tendency of the drop motion agrees well with the
experimental results in Ref. [13]. Fig. 4e shows G of the
drop-on-cone system of the clam-shell drops, where the
initial states are not stable, resulting in an oscillation of
G. When the drop moves toward the base with R = 50 m,
= 30, and = 2.3, the local radius increases and the
barrel drop gradually turns into a clam-shell drop, as
predicted by Eq. (1) and shown in Fig. 4a with the video
on https://youtu.be/UJbtAOx_wNk. When increases to
60, the drop with R = 50 m quickly forms a clam-shell
shape and moves toward the base, as shown in
Figs. 4b and 4c. We eliminated the influence of the os-
cillation by smoothing G with FFT filter, and then ob-
tained Ggrad (Fig. 4f). When decreases from 2.3 to
1.15, Ggrad decreases and the drop slows down, indi-
cating a decreasing driving force. The free energy gra-
dient of the clam-shell drops in Fig. 4f is weaker than
that of barrel drops, and great gradients is observed
when the drop conformations changes. In addition, big
 368 Journal of Bionic Engineering (2016) Vol.13 No.3

(a) (b)
0 ms 0 ms

1 ms 0.5 ms

2 ms 1 ms

3 ms 1.5 ms

4 ms 2 ms
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 z (mm) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 z (mm)
(c) (d)
0 ms
0 ms

0.7 ms 1 ms

1 ms 2 ms

2 ms 3 ms

3 ms 4 ms

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 z (mm) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 z (mm)
(e) (f) 3.0
3.0 a = 2.3 = 60 a = 2.3 = 60
2.8 a = 1.15 = 60 2.5 a = 1.15 = 60
a = 2.3 = 30 a = 2.3 = 30
2.6 a = 1.15 = 150 a = 1.15 = 150
2.0
2.4
2.2 Transformation 1.5
2.0
1.0
1.8 Transformation
1.6 0.5
1.4 Transformation 0.0
1.2
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
z (mm) z (mm)
Fig. 4 The simulation results of clam-shell drops. (a) and (d) The evolution of drops on the cones with R = 50 m under (a) = 30 and
= 2.3, (b) = 60 and = 2.3; (c) = 60 and = 1.15; (d) = 150 and = 1.15; (e) the free energy and (f) the free energy gradient
of the clam-shell drops; here LV = 0.072 Nm1.

and small lead to large Ggrad corresponding to large
driving force. When the cone is hydrophobic, the drops
move toward the tip instead of the base under R = 50 m,
= 120, and = 1.15, as shown in Fig. 4d and the
video on https://youtu.be/pHfrP-k1mm8, agreeing with
the reported drop motion trend[23]. Meanwhile, Ggrad of
the drops on the hydrophobic cones is much weaker than
that on the hydrophilic cones, as shown in Fig. 4f.
The free energy and free energy gradient can also
be normalized for clam-shell drops by using the nor-
malization factor. Here, we define xav as the local di-
ameter of the cone where the drop located, and acquire
x = xav / R
 (6)
 
Ggrad = dG dl
We obtain the normalized G and G grad as func-
tions of x . Fig. 5a displays the relationship of G vs. x
under = 30, = 2.3, and different R (R = 50 m,
100 m and 200 m), where the inset shows G before
normalization. The normalized curves almost overlap
each other during both barrel and clam-shell stages,
because the drops are in similar shapes during the evo-
lution[27,28]. Since G is calculated directly from G ,
grad
the normalized curves of the free energy gradient should
coalesce into one curve. Thus, the normalized functions
can be applied in design guidance of the cactus-inspired
structures.
Small errors exist during the conformations trans-
forming, because the perturbations vary under different
scales during the drop motion and have much influence
on the transformation[21]. Figs. 5b and 5c display the
normalized free energy and free energy gradient of the
clam-shell drops under = 30, 60, 150 and = 2.3,
1.15. The transformation under = 30 and = 2.3
occurs at bigger x than that under = 60 and = 2.3,
agreeing with the results in Fig. 1c. For a specific di-
ameter of a cone under = 1.15, the collecting length is
double while G is almost half of those under = 2.3,
grad
 Tan et al.: Investigation of Fog Collection on Cactus-inspired Structures
Fig. 5 The normalized curves of clam-shell drops. (a) The curves
of normalized free energy under = 30, = 2.3, and R = 50 m,
100 m, 200 m, almost overlaping each other during barrel and
clam-shell stages, the inset shows the free energy before nor-
malization; (b) the normalized free energy, (c) normalized free
energy gradient of the clam-shell drops under = 30, 60, 150
and = 2.3, 1.15.
as shown in Fig. 5c. Therefore, suitable should be
chosen to balance the collecting length and free energy
gradient.
Compared with the previous work, we obtain free
energy and free energy gradient distributions, which is
helpful to visually analyze the drop motion trends,
making it more convenient to analyze the driving forces
quantitatively. Since no simplification is conducted
during the derivation and calculation except for the
369
(a) (b)
2 m 2 m
(c) =91 adv=91 rec=58
(d) =8 adv=11 rec=4
(e) =144 adv=148 rec=110
Fig. 6 (a) and (b) The SEM images of Cu(OH)2 nanowires on
(a) Cu cones and (b) Cu slices, exhibiting the same structures
under the same growth conditions, the diameters of the nanowires
are about 200 nm. (c)(e) the water contact angles, advancing
angles and receding angles on (c) Cu, (d) Cu(OH)2 nanowires and
(e) Cu(OH)2 nanowires modified by decylamine, respectively.
contact angle hysteresis, it is viable for different situa-
tions on the basis of the theoretical model. The equilib-
rium distance leq helps to explain that the drops with
specific volume stop somewhere on the cone, and con-
tinue moving when the volume increases. Whats more,
the normalized curves for both barrel and clam-shell
drop are obtained, offering efficient design for
bio-inspired structures. The model of the drop-on-cone
system become much more complex and interesting
when taking account of the contact angle hysteresis,
which has been investigated by analyzing the liquid
pressure[23]. Next, we will combine liquid pressure
method and free energy gradient method to investigate
the problem systematically with less simplification via
theoretical calculation and simulation.
3 Experimental verification
We used the gradient electrochemical corrosion,
proposed by Jiang et al.[14,32,33], to prepare the Cu cones
with Cu wire about 300 m in diameter. The Cu cones
were then immersed in an aqueous solution mixture
(0.03 mol/L (NH4)2S2O8 and 0.75 mol/L NaOH)[3335] for
7 min to produce Cu(OH)2 nanowires on the surface and
hydrophilic cones were fabricated. We used decylamine
to modify the Cu(OH)2 nanowire surfaces and obtained
 370 Journal of Bionic Engineering (2016) Vol.13 No.3

Fig. 7 The sequences of the drops move on the Cu cones with Cu(OH)2 nanowires (a) before and (b) after modification with decylamine
during the fog collection under = 0.88; (c) the drop radii as a function of the local radii of the cones under equilibrium states; (d) the
collecting ability as a function of the half-apex angles for different cones.

hydrophobic cones[36]. The fog collection tests were
conducted with an ultrasonic humidifier (PW106, Povos
Co. Ltd.) to generate saturated fog, and the results were
captured by a high-speed camera (PCO.dimax HD, PCO
Co. Ltd.).
The half-apex angles of the cones were measured
via the microscopic images. Since the cones are tapered,
we evaluated the mean half-apex angle by tan = D/2L,
where D is the diameter of the Cu wires and L is the cone
length. The measure error of is about 0.02. The
Cu(OH)2 nanowires on Cu cones and Cu slices exhibit
the same structures, as shown in Figs. 6a and 6b. Thus
we can test the apparent contact angle of Cu(OH)2 sur-
face on slice samples instead of cones. Figs. 6c6e dis-
play the water contact angles , advancing contact an-
gles adv and receding angles rec of different surfaces.
The water contact angles on Cu(OH)2 nanowires and
Cu(OH)2 nanowires modified by decylamine are 8 and
144, different from that on Cu (91). The advancing
angles of Cu, Cu(OH)2 nanowires and modified
Cu(OH)2 nanowires are 102, 11 and 148, and the re-
ceding angles are 58, 4 and 110, respectively.
The fog collections on the hydrophilic and hydro-
phobic cones are shown in Figs. 7a and 7b (corre-
sponding videos on https://youtu.be/fyj-4mK1uTg and
https://youtu.be/SFBXU_jOs7g). The half-apex angles
of the tested cones are 0.88. On the hydrophilic cone,
the water drop moves towards the base and the volume
increases, as shown in Fig. 7a. When the cone is wetted,
even tiny drops can move toward the base and coalesce
into a large drop, which may promote fog collection. The
drops on the hydrophobic cone coalesce and stop near
the tip (Fig. 7b), where the collecting length is much
shorter than that of the hydrophilic cones. Fig. 7c shows
the experimental relationship between R and the local
radii of the cones under different and . On hydrophilic
 Tan et al.: Investigation of Fog Collection on Cactus-inspired Structures
cones, small drops can move to a position with large
local diameter, and the drops will move to the base end
as the drop volume increases, agreeing with the theo-
retical results. The drops on the hydrophobic cones
move in short distance with the increment of the drop
radius, even the drops are big enough. Fig. 7d shows the
influence of on the collecting ability with varied wet-
tability, where the inflection points around = 1.1 are
observed. The collecting ability of the hydrophilic cone
increases from 0.46 Lmin1 to 1.05 Lmin1 as
decreases from 1.93 to 1.07, but it increases by only
0.1 L/min when decreases from 1.07 to 0.65. The
collecting ability of Cu cone, without nanowires grown
on it, increases from 0.28 L/min to 0.98 L/min with
decreasing from 1.93 to 1.12. As keeps decreasing,
an abrupt decrease of the collecting ability occurs, down
to 0.81 L/min at = 0.72. The tendency of collecting
ability for hydrophobic cone remains similar to that of
Cu cone.
During the fog collection, small drops (typically
V < 0.1L) are mainly transported directionally near the
tip end, which can be observed in Fig. 7a and 7b and the
corresponding videos. Within 0 mm 2 mm near the tip
end, Ggrad is much smaller under = 0.5 and 1 than that
under larger , as illustrated in Fig. 2c, explaining the
decrease of driving force and fog collection ability be-
low the inflection points. Therefore, the inflection points
(about 1.1) are suggested for half-apex angles to bal-
ance the driving force and collecting length, and hy-
drophilic surfaces are more suitable for fog collection
than hydrophobic ones.
4 Conclusion
We modeled the drop-on-cone system, and ana-
lyzed the Gibbs free energy gradients, motion, and
equilibrium conformations of a drop adhering to a cone
through theoretical calculations and FVM simulations.
An equilibrium position with the minimum Gibbs free
energy on the cone together with the equilibrium dis-
tance proportional to the drop radius was achieved. The
free energy and free energy gradient were normalized for
clam-shell drops as well as barrel drops on cones, indi-
cated that the half-apex angle was positively related to
the driving force while negative to the cone length. Thus
should be controlled to balance the driving force and
collecting length. These revealed the relations between
the collecting performance and parameters of the cones
371
such as the surface property and half-apex angle. Ex-
periments were conducted for verification. Inflection
points around = 1.1 were observed in the fog col-
lecting ability curves. When > 1.1, the collection
ability increased as decreased. During the fog collec-
tion of hydrophilic cones, small drops coalesced into one
large drop and moved towards the base. With de-
creasing below the inflection points, the collection abil-
ity increased little. For the hydrophobic cones, the col-
lecting ability decreased sharply due to low driving force.
These are in accordance with the normalized functions.
Our research proved half-apex angles around the inflec-
tion points (1.1) being suitable and hydrophilic cones
exhibiting better performance, thus provided design
guidance for efficient fog collection structures.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for financial support from
the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(Grant Nos. 51305129 and 51222508), and the Program
for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team
in University (No. IRT13017).
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