Modeling and determination of heat transfer coefficient in a basin solar still using CFD

Even though the use of solar energy in distillation of saline water to produce potable water due to the increase of fossil fuel cost and environmental consideration has become wide spread, their usages are prohibited by their cost. This required study on the modeling and transport parameters determination of basin solar still for an efficient design. Hence a three-dimensional, two-phase model was developed for evaporation and condensation processes in solar still by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method to simulate the model. The simulation results were compared with the available experimental data of basin solar still. The amount of fresh water productivity and water temperature were in good agreement with experimental data. Convective and evaporative heat transfer coefficients based on two literature correlations for both experimental and CFD results were calculated and compared. Study shows that CFD is a powerful tool for design, parameter analysis and diagnostic purposes of solar still. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.