An experimental approach to improve the basin type solar still using an integrated natural circulation loop
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Date
2015
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
In this paper, a new experimental approach is proposed to enhance the performances of the conventional
solar still using the natural circulation effect inside the still. The idea consists in generating air flow by a
rectangular natural circulation loop appended to the rear side of the still. The proposed still was tested
during summer period and the experimental data presented in this paper concerns four typical days.
The convective heat transfer coefficient is evaluated and compared with Dunkle’s model. The comparison
shows that convective heat transfer is considerably improved by the air convection created inside the
still. The natural circulation phenomenon in the still is studied and a good agreement between the experimental
data and Vijajan’s laminar correlation is found. Therefore, natural circulation phenomenon is
found to have a good effect on the still performances where the still daily productivity is of 3.72 kg/m2
and the maximum efficiency is of 45.15%.