Water wicking up porous media and air humidity ?

[Alfreds9]

Hello,

I'd like to know which of these 3 example I sketched would have a steadier and higher air humidity at measuring point, assuming same conditions (except those illustrated as different, like porous media thickness and measuring point), water level and air turbulence within larger container (illustrations are a cross view).
Wild guesses are of course welcome since I don't need nor can ask for anything exact given my poor and generic example.

Thank you

Allison

 

[Simon Bridge]

Guessing - #2.
- assuming that the height up the sides is short enough to allow the "wick" to be wet at the top.
- there is enough energy to remove water from the wick at the top
- rule of thumb: water will climb higher via a wick than via diffusion in air.

Longer answer: it depends.

 

[Alfreds9]

Guessing - #2.
- assuming that the height up the sides is short enough to allow the "wick" to be wet at the top.
- there is enough energy to remove water from the wick at the top
- rule of thumb: water will climb higher via a wick than via diffusion in air.

Longer answer: it depends.

I see, thank you.
I erroneously thought it was #3 since I supposed the greater surface area of porous particles could play a role into replacing water vapor content in air more efficiently than porous particles slightly closer to measuring point.

 

[Simon Bridge]

The process is, simplistically, water evaporates off the top and gets carried off by convection (to be replaced by water from below kinda soaking upwards.)
If the top is not exposed to air that can circulate, then the air gets saturated so water no longer evaporates. This stops the process.
I suspect 1 and 3 would be about the same... the air in the narrow parts would quickly get saturated.