Effect of Heat Capacity of Basin Material and Glass Cover on Distillate Yield of Single Slope Passive Solar still – A Theoretical Investigation

Abstract:

In most of the thermal analyses to develop a mathematical model for the conventional single slope passive solar still, it is found that heat capacity of the basin and glass cover are neglected to simplify the mathematical modeling. However all the materials have their own specific heat and according to the specific heat the material store some amount of heat energy within it. As a result the heat transfer between the system components of a solar still and thermal losses from the components will vary depending on their thermal properties like heat capacity, absorptance and thermal conductivity of components. Due to this, the temperature variation of the different components of a solar still is not only the function of solar intensity nevertheless also the function of their thermal properties. Subsequently it is necessary to consider the heat capacity of all the components of a conventional still. In this paper, mathematical modeling was developed to study the effect of heat capacity of basin material and glass cover on distillate yield of single slope passive solar still. The study found that considering the heat capacity of the components increase the distillate yield of the single slope passive solar still.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volume 787)
• Pages: 43-47
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.787.43
• Online since: August 2015
• Authors: V. Sivakumar*, E. Ganapathy Sundaram, B. Sakthikiran, T. Sanjay Krishnan, A. Riyaz Hussain
• Keywords: Heat Capacity, Mathematical Model, Passive Solar still

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