EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECT OF PCM AND EXTERNAL REFLECTORS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF A CONVENTIONAL SOLAR STILL
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11113/aej.v15.23392Keywords:
conventional solar still , solar energy, phase change material, external reflectors, evaporation and condensationAbstract
The conventional solar still (CSS) is a device that utilises solar energy to generate distilled water by employing thermal processes such as evaporation and condensation of brackish water The CSS is a desalination system in the development stage; further enhancement is required to increase its output yield. In the current study, an experimental and numerical investigation was conducted to explore the impact of using PCM and external reflectors on the performance of conventional solar still during different months in the climate of Baghdad. Also, the impact of water depth was examined for 2 cm, 3 cm, and 4cm. Furthermore, a series of numerical simulations using ANSYS-FLUENT commercial software was conducted. The results showed that using PCM improves the yield by 8% on average while using both PCM and external reflectors improves the yield by 24%. The results also revealed that increasing the water depth from 2 cm to 4 cm reduces the yield by 16%. The numerical simulation revealed that the numerical and experimental yield are in good agreement, with less than 5% as a maximum deviation.
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