Conditions for Barrel and Clam-Shell Liquid Drops to Move on Bio-inspired Conical Wires

It has been reported that, in a foggy environment, water drops with either barrel or clam-shell shapes are capable of self-running on conical wire-like structures, such as cactus spines, spider silk, and water striders’ legs. On the other hand, the corresponding moving mechanisms are still not quite understood. For instance, it is unclear under what conditions clam-shell drops would move from the tip towards the root on a conical wire. In this work, based on the balance of forces, we derive conditions for a drop to self-transport towards or away from the root. We find that, although barrel and clam-shell drops have different shapes, these conditions are applicable to both of them, which thus provide good guidelines for developing artificial fog collectors. Furthermore, based on the derived conditions, we interpret drop movements on both hydrophilic and hydrophobic wires, with the support of experimental results on cactus spines. Finally, our results indicate that not all the cacti are able to harvest water from fog.