| dc.description.abstract | In modern times, several coastal and remote regions face a scarcity of safe drinking water
source. The conventional fossil fuels used for boiling the water are also running short day by
day, so using renewable energy sources to purify the water is a dire need. In this project a
computational model has been developed using appropriate equations and data, in order to
optimize solar stills performance. The daily drinking water production rate of a still depends on
factors such as solar insolation, ambient temperature, wind velocity, etc. The production rate
also depends on still size, shape, inclination angle, wick material properties, insulation system,
water depth, heat-storing mediums, etc. The main challenge of this project is the low production
rate that depends on the natural conditions and still parameters. Besides, high installation and
maintenance cost are also a great concern. So the primary goal of this research is to increase
production rate and design the still as a cost-effective one. The study is conducted using
meteorological data of specific locations in Bangladesh. At first, a preliminary design of stepped
solar still was prepared using Autodesk Fusion360, then its performance was optimized using
the computational model. Thus resulting in a final design of the still. The still has polystyrene
foam as wick material, copper wire mesh as heat storing medium and external reflectors for
enhancing the amount of water production. Maximum distillate water achieved was around 4
liters for Dhaka City and around 4.7 liters for Siddirganj, Naraynganj during the month of
March. | en_US |
