A comparative assessment of innovative hemispherical solar distillers with cylindrical and conical fins: an experimental approach

Abstract

Although the in uence of ns on a basin's at absorber will improve thermal performance and distillate production due to the increased heat transfer areas, many researchers are still interested in the problem of shading caused by ns, which reduces distiller productivity for some con gurations of the ns designs. To obtain the best n con gurations that achieve the lowest shading effects and highest performance of hemispherical solar stills. The in uences of absorbent cement layer with two types of ns (cylindrical and conical ns) with a diameter of 1.5 cm and a height of 3 cm at different gap spacing (3, 3.75, and 4.5 cm) were studied. To achieve these; three hemispherical solar stills were tested at same weather conditions, rst is the conventional hemispherical still without ns (CHSWF) which represent the reference case. Second, is the cylindrical nned hemispherical still with gap spacing 3, 3.75, and 4.5 cm (CyFHS). Third, is the conical nned hemispherical still with gap spacing of 3, 3.75, and 4.5 cm (CoFHS).The results showed that, the cylindrical nned hemispherical still (CyFHS) productivity values are 5.55, 6.00, and 6.70 kg/m 2 , respectively, while conical nned hemispherical still (CoFHS) productivity values are 6.20, 6.65, and 7.15 kg/m 2 at gap spacing of 3, 3.75, and 4.5 cm, respectively compared to 4.20 kg/m 2 that was produced by CHSWF. The results showed that the use of conical ns achieves the highest performance of hemispherical still as a result of reducing the effect of shading. Whereas, the best con guration that achieves the highest performance is the use of conical ns with a gap spacing of 4.5 cm, where the rate of improvement is 70.24% compared to CHSWF