Productivity estimation of a single-slope solar still: Theoretical and numerical analysis

Rahbar, Nader; Esfahani, Javad Abolfazli

doi:10.1016/j.energy.2012.10.023

Cited by 145 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…To experimental results and the correlation given in [36] showed that the average deviation does not exceed 6%. Two important environmental parameters that affect the efficiency of solar still are the radiation and ambient temperature.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rahbar and Esfahani [36] presented a correlation to estimate the productivity of single slope solar stills. The correlation was as a function of glass cover and water temperatures.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As illustrated, exergy efficiency for the 12 th day was maximum, and its value was even more than those of 8 th and 9 th days that had the maximum productivity and thermal efficiency, respectively. Equations (32)(33)(34)(35)(36) elucidate that ambient temperature plays a significant role in the exergy efficiency magnitude. With an increase in the ambient temperature, the output exergy decreases while the input exergy increases and this consequently leads to the reduction of exergy efficiency.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nanofluids effects on the evaporation rate in a solar still equipped with a heat exchanger

et al. 2017

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In this paper, the performance of a solar still equipped with a heat exchanger using nanofluids has been studied both experimentally and theoretically through three key parameters, i.e., freshwater yield, energy efficiency and exergy efficiency. First, experiments are performed on a set-up, which is mainly composed of two flat plate solar collectors connected in series, and a solar still equipped with a heat exchanger. After heated in the collectors, the nanofluid enters the heat exchanger installed in the solar still basin to exchange heat with brackish water. The research question is to know how much the effect of nanofluids on the evaporation rate inside the solar desalination system is. The experiments are conducted for different nanoparticle volume fractions, two sizes of nanoparticles (7 and 40 nm), two depths of water in the solar still basin (4 and 8 cm), and three mass flow rates of nanofluids during various weather conditions. It is found that the weather conditions (mainly the sun radiation intensity) have a dominant influence on the solar still performance. To discover the effects of nanofluids, a mathematical model is developed and validated by experimental data at given weather conditions. The results reveal that using the heat exchanger at temperatures lower than 60 o C is not advantageous and the corresponding yield is smaller than that of solar still without the heat exchanger; although in such a case, using 2 nanofluids as the working fluid in the heat exchanger can enhance the performance indices about 10%. At higher temperatures (e.g. 70 o C), the use of heat exchanger is beneficial; however, using nanofluids instead of water can augment the performance indices marginally i.e. just around 1%. In addition, it is found that in high temperatures using SiO 2 /water nanofluids, which have a lower effective thermal conductivity than that of Cu/water nanofluids, provides higher performance indices.Keywords: Nanofluids; Solar desalination; Heat exchanger; Freshwater yield 1-IntroductionNowadays, "Nano" and "Energy" have been two hot keywords, not only in the scientific community but also in our daily life. During recent decades, researchers have attempted to apply nanotechnology to various energy and power systems such as electric generators, fuel cells, batteries, and solar cells [1][2][3][4][5]. Nanotechnology has also been implemented to enhance the heat transfer potential of common liquids like water and oil to ameliorate the efficiency of thermal systems; this can be done through adding solid nanoparticles (particles with a size of 1-100 nm) to the liquids. The mixture of nanoparticles and conventional liquids is named "nanofluid" [6].Despite some limitations such as relatively high preparation cost and stability issues, extensive attempts have been made to develop the applications of nanofluids in energy systems such as solar energy based devices [7][8][9][10][11][12][13], cooling and thermal management of electronic equipment [14,15], grinding and drilling, absorption systems, medicine...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rahbar and Esfahani [36] presented a correlation to estimate the productivity of single slope solar stills. The correlation was as a function of glass cover and water temperatures.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Nanofluids effects on the evaporation rate in a solar still equipped with a heat exchanger

et al. 2017

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“…Rabbar (2013) found that the ratio of evaporative over convective heat transfer was a function of glass and water temperature [37]. Narjes et al (2011) simulated the heat transfer coefficient for solar desalination still using computer fluid dynamics; it was inferred that the rate of fresh water production does not change significantly with radiation heat transfer coefficients but it was influenced by the temperature of water and glass cover [38].…”

Section: Basic Single-effect Solar Stillmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar stills: A comprehensive review of designs, performance and material advances

Rufuss

Iniyan

Suganthi

et al. 2016

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

210

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“…In addition, the flow was observed to undergo a periodic behavior for the particular parameters Ra= 10 4 and an inclination angle =75 o according to the aiding flow case. On another hand, one of the main industrial applications of double diffusive natural convection is solar distillation in which natural convection occurs within the solar distiller, owing to the collective thermal and mass diffusion buoyancy effects as well as the temperature difference between a cover and an absorber [5][6][7]. In fact, study of solar distillers is one of the most significant works to progress their performance with a competitive price Madhlopa et al [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Some Aspects of the Three-Dimensional Double-Diffusive Natural Convection in a Parallelepipedic Tilted Solar Distiller

Oueslati

Ben-Beya

Tong

2015

ILCPA

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ABSTRACT. Three-dimensional double-diffusive natural convection in a parallelepipedic solar distiller inclined with an angle is investigated in the current study. Computations are performed using a home code "NASIM" based on the finite volume method and a full multigrid technique. It is found that iso-surfaces relative to temperature field undergo a central stratification while the lower and upper gradients seem to be significantly strengthened by gradually increasing the Rayleigh number values. In terms of buoyancy ratio effects, projection of thermal and solutal isocontours at the mid plane (y=1) showed that the flow intensity is significantly enhanced by monotonously increasing N for aiding flow situation (N>0). In addition, and according to all Rayleigh number values, the variation of average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers seem to be minimum for N=-1 with weaker values for opposing flow situation. On another hand, isosurfaces of the transverse v-velocity component showed the importance of the 3-D effects that manifest within the solar distiller.

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Productivity estimation of a single-slope solar still: Theoretical and numerical analysis

Cited by 145 publications

References 34 publications

Nanofluids effects on the evaporation rate in a solar still equipped with a heat exchanger

Nanofluids effects on the evaporation rate in a solar still equipped with a heat exchanger

Solar stills: A comprehensive review of designs, performance and material advances

Some Aspects of the Three-Dimensional Double-Diffusive Natural Convection in a Parallelepipedic Tilted Solar Distiller

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