Performance of finned and corrugated absorbers solar stills under Egyptian conditions

An experimental study was conducted to improve the productivity of basin solar stills by increasing the surface area of absorber (base of still) and rate of heat transfer between saline water and absorber. In view of this, three solar stills are designed and fabricated in order to study the performance of each still. The first one is a conventional type and the second is a finned still while the third one is corrugated still. The performance of the finned and corrugated solar stills is tested and compared with conventional still under the same climate conditions. The performance of different solar sills were tested under two cases; stills at the same water depth (50 mm) and stills at the same quantity of saline water (30 and 50 l). The results indicate that the productivity of finned and corrugated solar stills is higher than that for conventional still. Also it is found that at quantity of saline water 30 l the productivity increased, when finned solar still and corrugated solar still are used approximately by 40% and 21% respectively. In this case the daily efficiency and estimated cost of 1 l of distillate for finned, corrugated and conventional solar stills are approximately 47.5%–0.041 $, 41%–0.047 $ and 35%–0.049 $ respectively.

Research highlights
► The performance of the finned and corrugated solar stills was studied.
► The productivity of finned and corrugated solar stills are higher than conventional still.
► The daily efficiency for finned, corrugated and conventional solar stills reached 47.5% 41% and 35% respectively.