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Application of Software in Predicting Thermal Behaviours of Solar Stills

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Solar Desalination Technology

Part of the book series: Green Energy and Technology ((GREEN))

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Abstract

Software plays a major role in analysis and simulation of solar stills. These simulation techniques are very much cheaper and time saving compared to the experimental analysis of a system. This chapter explains the different software used for the design and testing of various models of solar still. It also gives an overall idea of what type of software being used and its feasibility. Software like MATLAB, ANSYS and FLUENT have been taken into account here for modelling and development of various solar stills. Moreover, software such as SPSS is often used for statistical data analysis. All recent software have been selected and reviewed and the benefits explained.

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Abbreviations

A :

Area, m²

\(A_{\text{g}}\) :

Aspect ratio for glass A = L/H

C :

Vapour concentration of air, kg m−³

c :

Specific heat, J kg−1 °C−1

\(C_{p}\) :

Specific heat capacity at constant pressure, J kg−1 K−1

\(C_{\text{wg}}\) :

Specific heat of water and glass cover, J kg−1 °C−1

D :

Depth of water, cm

\(D_{\text{ag}}\) :

Diffusion coefficient of gas phase

\(d_{\text{w}}\) :

Depth of saline water, m

F :

Solar radiation absorption factor, dimensionless

G :

Irradiance, W m−2

g :

Solar flux

\(Gn\) :

Grashoff’s number

H :

Solar irradiation, kWh/m²

\(h\) :

Convection heat transfer coefficient, W m−2 K−1

\(h_{\text{glc}}\) :

Heat transfer coefficient of glass cover, W/m² K

\(h_{p}\) :

Convective radiative heat transfer coefficient from outer glass surface cover to ambient, W/m² K

\(I_{\text{t}}\) :

Tilt of incident solar radiation, W m−2

\(I_{\text{s}} (t)\) :

Solar radiation over the solar still glass cover, W/m²

\(K\) :

Thermal conductivity

Le :

Lewis number

\(L_{\text{v}}\) :

Latent heat of vaporization, J/kg

\(\dot{m}\) :

Specific mass, kg/m²

\(m^{\prime}_{\text{b}}\) :

Mass rate of brine, kg m−3

\(m^{\prime}_{\text{ev}}\) :

Produced mass rate of vapour, kg m−3

\(m_{\text{eva}}\) :

Mass for evaporation, kg

\(m_{\text{evap}}\) :

Rate of mass evaporation, m/s

\(M_{\text{gl}}\) :

Interphase momentum transfer, kg/m² s²

\(m_{\lg }\) :

Rate of interphase mass transfer, kg/m³

\(m^{\prime}_{\text{sw}}\) :

Mass rate for saline water, kg m−3

\(\dot{m}_{\text{wg}}\) :

Mass flow rate of water and glass cover, kg s−1

\(P\) :

Pressure, N/m²

\(P_{\text{ci}}\) :

Partial saturated vapour pressure at condensing cover temperature

\(P_{\text{d}}\) :

Calculated daily productivity, 1/m² day

\(Pr\) :

Prandtl number

\(P_{\text{v}}\) :

Partial saturated vapour pressure at water temperature

\(\dot{Q}\) :

Heat transfer rate, W

\(q_{\text{a}}\) :

Convective heat transfer, W

\(q_{\text{e,v}}\) :

Heat transfer per unit area per unit time

\(Q_{\lg }\) :

Energy transfer between liquid and gas phases

R :

Ratio of evaporator chamber volume to condenser chamber volume, dimensionless

\(r\) :

Volume fraction, dimensionless

Rd:

Radius of tubular solar still, m

Sc :

Schmidt number

T :

Temperature, °C

\(t\) :

Thickness, m

t a :

Average ambient temperature, °C

\(T_{\text{am}}\) :

Temperature ambient, °C

\(T_{\text{g}}\) :

Glass temperature, °C

\(T_{\text{gin}}\) :

Inner glass surface temperature, °C

\(T_{\text{gout}}\) :

Outer glass cover temperature, °C

\(T_{\text{v}}\) :

Water temperature, °C

U :

Side heat loss coefficient from basin to ambient, W m−2 K−1

\(u\) :

X component of velocity, m s−¹

\(U_{\text{eva}}\) :

Heat transfer coefficient for evaporation, W/m² K

\(V\) :

Velocity vector, m/s

\(v\) :

Y component of velocity, m s−¹

W :

Wind velocity, m/s

\(w\) :

Compressor power, w

\(X_{A}\) :

Mass fraction of liquid phase

\(Y_{A}\) :

Mass fraction of gas phase

\(y_{\text{b}}\) :

Concentration of salt in brine, mg l−1

\(y_{\text{sw}}\) :

Concentration of salts in feeding water, mg l−1

\(\beta\) :

Reflectivity

\(\gamma\) :

Thermal diffusivity of air, m² s−1

\(\lambda /\varphi\) :

Brine depth to frontal height, –

\(\varphi_{\text{g}}\) :

Latitude of glass cover, °

\(\varphi_{\text{w}}\) :

Latitude of water, °

\(\phi\) :

Glass inclination angle, °

\(\rho\) :

Density, kg/m³

\(\sigma\) :

Stefan–Boltzmann constant (\(5.67 \times 10^{ - 8} \;{\text{W}}\,{\text{m}}^{2} \,{\text{K}}^{ - 4}\))

\(\mu\) :

Viscosity, kg/m s

\(\chi\) :

Feed concentration factor

1:

Initial

a:

Air

B:

Base

b:

Direct beam of solar radiation

Bs:

Basin

c:

Convective

e:

Evaporative

eff:

Effective

ev:

Evaporator

f:

Refrigeration

g:

Glass

l:

Side loss

Liq:

Liquid

rad:

Radiative

\(v\) :

Water

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, Jalpaiguri, India

    Anirshu DevRoy

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Ranchi, 835215, India

    Om Prakash

  3. Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 9220, Aalborg East, Denmark

    Shobhana Singh

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Delhi Technological University, Delhi, 110042, India

    Anil Kumar

Authors
  1. Anirshu DevRoy
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  2. Om Prakash
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  3. Shobhana Singh
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  4. Anil Kumar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Om Prakash .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Delhi Technological University, Delhi, India

    Anil Kumar

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

    Om Prakash

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DevRoy, A., Prakash, O., Singh, S., Kumar, A. (2019). Application of Software in Predicting Thermal Behaviours of Solar Stills. In: Kumar, A., Prakash, O. (eds) Solar Desalination Technology. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6887-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6887-5_5

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-6887-5

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