Enhancing the solar still using immersion type water heater productivity and the effect of external cooling fan in winter

In the present work an attempt is made to enhance the of double slope solar still productivity by an immersion type water heater using. The effect of using an external fan to cool the glass surface is also examined. Experiments were carried out for winter season in Saudi Arabian climatic conditions at latitude 26 degree N. A solar still with 35 degree glass slope angle is chosen in our study. Since the yield of a solar still is more for low water depths, the water level in the base tank was maintained at 1 cm. The experimental results showed that the productivity increased by a significant 370% when two water heaters each having 500 W capacities was used. When external cooling fan was used the productivity was found to decrease by 4 % and 8% for wind speeds of 7 m/s and 9 m/s respectively. Thermal modeling was also done by the heat and mass transfer relations using, and then numerical simulations were carried out to validate with the experimental results. A good agreement between experimental and numerical results was found. The present study is partial implementation of two patents submitted in this field. (authors)