Switching behavior of droplets crossing nodes on a fiber network

Lately, curious structures have been erected in arid regions: They are large nets able to catch water from fog. Tiny droplets condense on the mesh and are collected on the bottom of it. This innovative technology is crucial to obtain drinkable water in these inhospitable areas. Many studies aim to understand the behavior of droplets trapped on this entanglement of fibers. However, the motion of a droplet sliding on a network of inclined fibers and encountering several crossings when going down remains an open question. Here, we look at the path chosen by such a drop and, especially, we analyze its behavior at the different nodes of the array. We show that droplets may change from one fiber to another one depending on the slope and the diameter of these fibers. We prove that we can force a droplet to follow a specific path simply by carefully designing the fiber mesh. These findings are expected to provide a very convenient way to manipulate small droplets in applications from microfluidics to fog harvesting. © 2017 The Author(s).