Experimental and theoretical assessment of dual-slope single-basin solar still with the circular cross-sectional hollow-fins

Abstract

The experimental and theoretical assessment of the dual-slope single-basin solar still has been presented with and without circular cross-section hollow-fins appended on the absorber plate. Two alike dual-slope single-basin solar stills were constructed, one with hollow-fins and the other without hollow-fins. The 10 mm depth of brackish water was maintained in the basin. For the three consecutive days in the month of April, experiments were conducted under the meteorological situations of Valsad (20.61°N, 72.91°E). Using the basic principles of heat transfer and extended surface, dedicated theoretical models have been formulated for the still with and without hollow-fins. To study the transient behaviour of the system, differential equations of various components of solar still developed in theoretical models were solved using the analytical method used to solve the nonhomogeneous linear first-order differential equation. The theoretical results have been compared with experimental measurements. The absorber plate area for absorption of solar irradiation was increased by 23.78% with the inclusion of hollow-fins. With an enhancement of 47.35%, an average yield of 1285.2 ml/m2 was achieved for the still with hollow-fins. The average daily efficiency of 17.93% was achieved with an enhancement of 51.74% for the still with hollow-fins.