Experimental Validation of Optimized Solar Still Using Solar Energy

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental validation of a new concept of solar distiller with a condenser and coupled with water solar heater and air collector and humidifier to ameliorate the yield of freshwater of this solar still system which is placed at Sfax in Tunisia. An experimental as well as theoretical investigation is carried out. A mathematical model based on heat and mass transfers of the optimized solar system has been presented in dynamic mode. The obtained global model of the solar unit distillation has been converted to a set of algebraic system of equations to render them ordinary equations by the functional approximation method of orthogonal collocation. To compare the numerical and experimental data of the mathematical model of the solar distiller an example of the validation process that has been presented to assess the credibility of the obtained numerical model of solar distiller system, a laptop simulation program based on the model is simulated by C++ software. In this numerical study, the fourth order Runge-Kutta method is programed to solve the model of glass cover, water and basin temperature of the optimised solar still numerically. It was shown that the developed mathematical model is able to predict accurately the trends of the thermal characteristic of the optimized solar still system temperature of the optimized solar still.