Effect of External Reflectors on the Productivity of a Solar Still During Winter

Abstract

This paper presents the experimental work carried out in winter for a double slope solar still with external reflectors. Experiments were performed in Dhahran, a city in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia at latitude 26°N. Four inclined mirrors were placed around the still to reflect extra solar irradiance onto the solar still. Numerical analysis was also carried out using heat and mass transfer inside the solar still and was validated with the experimental results. The external reflectors were shown to significantly enhance the productivity of the solar still and an increase in the distillate by approximately 82% was observed in this study. The present study is a partial implementation of two patents submitted recently in the field of solar distillation.