Assessment of effectiveness of hollow fins for performance enhancement of solar still device using simulation approach

Unavailability of relatively clean water for several industrial, domestic and agricultural purposes is a serious concern to many regions of the world today. This challenge is growing worse with the increasing world global warming and human population. Therefore, there is need to research into an innovative, sustainable and/or improved technology for an efficient and effective solution, such as desalination. Desalination of freely available sea water is considered a promising source of fresh water. Solar radiation is abundant and can be used to desalinate water, using a solar still device. Also, it is important to increase the productivity of the solar still device through hollow fin modification. Therefore, the effectiveness of this improvement was investigated in this study, using an analysis system (ANSYS) Fluent computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation. Appropriate models were used to describe the physical processes, including condensation, evaporation, multiphase flow, surface tension and solar radiation. A close agreement between the simulation values of solar energy and the water temperature in the basin was observed when compared with the experimental data from the literature. Velocity of 0.259 m/s, pressure of 55.8 Pa, temperature of 57.85 ºC and mass transfer rate of 1.41 kg/m³/s were obtained in the mid-plane of the improved double slope single basin (DSSB). The degree of improvement was 5-7% when compared with the existing models. Importantly, this process is economically efficient and can support the concepts of sustainability and healthy living, especially in rural areas.