Modelling and Performance Enhancement of Single Slope Solar Still Using CFD

With rising population, development, and environmental pollution, availability of potable water is shrinking fast. Thus, it is required to focus on the distillation of available water. Solar Still is one of the promising technologies available to purify water because of its low cost, energy, and skill requirement. However, the efficiency of present technology is low, so it is required to advance the designs of existing solar stills. In this study, a multi-phase three-dimensional CFD model of a simple solar still developed for simulation with using ANSYS FLUENT. The simulation has been done for transient state to validate the results with experimental data for climate conditions of Jaipur (26°13'N, 75°49'E). Within the scope of this study, simulation results were found to be in good agreement with the experimental data. It is also examined that thermal efficiency of the Solar Still is higher from 16:00 to 17:00 hrs. Parametric analyses has been done to enhance the productivity of Solar Still. Different materials were used in the basin to increase the heat capacity, absorption capacity and the evaporation rate. The impact of varying the depth of the basin water was also studied. It has been found that the Solar Still have more productivity for low water depth.