Effect of External Reflectors on the Productivity of a Solar Still During Winter
Publication: Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 1
Abstract
This paper presents the experimental work carried out in winter for a double slope solar still with external reflectors. Experiments were performed in Dhahran, a city in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia at latitude 26°N. Four inclined mirrors were placed around the still to reflect extra solar irradiance onto the solar still. Numerical analysis was also carried out using heat and mass transfer inside the solar still and was validated with the experimental results. The external reflectors were shown to significantly enhance the productivity of the solar still and an increase in the distillate by approximately 82% was observed in this study. The present study is a partial implementation of two patents submitted recently in the field of solar distillation.
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Acknowledgments
The writer acknowledges the support provided by the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) and the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR) for funding this work through the project titled, “Design, testing and optimization of economically sound small solar sea water desalination units.”
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 1 • March 2014
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 3, 2011
Accepted: Apr 4, 2013
Published online: Apr 5, 2013
Published in print: Mar 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Apr 26, 2014
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