Construção de câmara simplificada de condensação atmosférica em superfícies

Abstract

The present work aims to build a simplified condensation chamber internally saturated with water at atmospheric pressure to study condensation on flat and bio-inspired specimens. The device can contribute to the development of low cost atmospheric water trapping surfaces, contributing to energy conservation in the environment and in society. To monitor the internal temperature and humidity of the chamber, a DHT22 sensor was installed with data output to the ARDUINO UNO R3, with subsequent data acquisition by SD, serving as a datalogger. The internal temperature was varied up to the dew point temperature with passive energy from melting ice with the objective of creating a chamber operation procedure for future experiments. The specimens chosen for this work were a flat surface of zinc, glass, polypropylene plastic (PP) and a specimen with a shape inspired in the biomimetics of the Namibian beetle (Stenocara gracilipes) with polypropylene plastic (PP), the last two were modeled in a 3D printer. Of the specimens under study, it can be observed that the glass plate was the only one that presented condensation on its surface, showing close enough behavior in capturing the condensant dispersed in the volume of 8 liters of the chamber at temperatures between 18°C and 20°C, during 180 minutes and 360 minutes from the beginning of the experiment.