Bibliometric Analysis of Solar Desalination Systems Powered by Solar Energy and CFD Modelled

Abstract

Solar desalination is a sustainable approach to producing fresh water from saline water. Researchers have tried modifications to solar desalination systems to enhance the distillate output. This survey aims to recognize the characteristics of research work for investigating solar desalination systems. The essential terms to be focused on are computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and solar radiation consideration for the investigation. The data for this bibliometric study was taken from Scopus, with 1932 publications. The characteristics of the research work were analyzed by identifying the research publications, research subject areas, journals, most contributed countries, and data from the authors. The research trend was investigated utilizing yearly research growth, geographical contributions, source quality of publications, and participation of various institutions. VOSviewer software was used for network analysis of essential keywords used in relevant research works and to understand collaborations between the authors and co-authors. About 76% of the total publications belong to the document type articles. It illuminates research tendencies related to the topic under consideration. Results show that desalination research work concerned with CFD or solar radiation was mainly investigated in Engineering and Environmental Science, with their share of more than 50% of the total publications. Further study of relevant research works was assessed using network analysis that helped to link different keywords and authors’ collaborations. This survey helps to spot the increasing research trends and the necessity of further research.

Keywords

• desalination
• solar still
• computational fluid dynamics
• radiation