The Effect of Water Depth on Productivity of Basin Solar Still: Modeling & Experimental Study

Solar stills can be the best and suitable devices to be used as low-capacity and self-reliance water supply system, since it can produce pure water by only using solar energy. Among the various types of solar stills, the basin solar still is the most simple and least expensive one. In this paper, the performance of basin solar still for different brackish water depths, is investigated. The experiments were conducted through out various seasons, by using four similar stills, simultaneously. This experimental set up has been installed in Shiraz which is located in south-west of Iran. In addition, a basin solar still is mathematically simulated and the rate of solar still productivity is calculated as a function of the still specifications such as water depth and various meteorological parameters. The obtained results have been compared with the experimental observation and it is found that there is a very good agreement between the theoretical prediction and experimental observation. Moreover the findings, suggest that the daily and nightly yield would be higher and lower for lower water depth respectively. Finally, it is found that the lower the depth of water, the larger would be the amount of distilled water during a 24-hours period.

کلیدواژه ها:

basin solar still ، water depth ، simulation ، renewable energy