Estimation of time of tracking for designed absorber used in domestic solar desalination system using experimental and Finite Element analysis (ANSYS)

Domestic solar desalination system consists of manual tracking parabolic solar concentrator, absorber and condenser unit. Salt water kept in an absorber gets heated by solar rays focused on to it by using parabolic solar concentrator. Water gets converted into steam and then it is condensed in a condenser to get purified water without using electricity. Efficiency of the system can be improved by maximum utilization of solar energy, which depends largely on to the geometry of absorber and the time for tracking. Paper explains selection of size of absorber using experimental and Finite Element analysis. Size and the time at which bright spot remains on an absorber are measured and tracing of the incident rays is estimated using experimental analysis. Validation of analysis is made using ray tracing software and ANSYS. FEA analysis is made to find the effect of focal shift on surface temperature of absorber. Maximum time, for which solar energy retains on to an absorber without tracking, is also measured. Effect of variation in the sizes of absorber and focal shift is calculated and validated using experimental analysis. Quality of purified potable water is tested at different heights and positions in the water testing lab (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.