Comprehensive analysis of design software application in solar distillation units

Abstract

The use of solar stills in rural regions are becoming increasingly popular as it is an economical solution for drinking water from saline water sources. Many researchers have worked for the improvement of conventional solar still to enhance productivity. Costly and time-consuming processes of operation in solar stills encourage many scholars to analyze mathematical simulation. This paper presents comprehensive reviews of the application of different design software to solar still systems. Design software is essential for developing and analyzing the mathematical models and predicting the most suitable performance parameters for the enhanced production rate of distilled water for still systems. Numerical modeling of solar still systems is necessary to analyze and investigate air movement, temperature variation for knowing water temperature, and air temperature through software like CFD, MATLAB, FORTRAN, TRYNSYS AutoCAD. The simulation technique's application using CFD is made with TRNSYS, FLUENT, ANSYS, FORTRAN and MATLAB which are useful tools to develop such mathematical models for the prediction of flow parameters. Engineering Equation Solver (EES) package and COMSOL Multiphysics solve the differential energy balance equation. All newly developed software employed for the utility of still solar systems is discussed. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the various software tools used in solar still to help researchers, scientists, and academicians.

Keywords

• FORTRAN
• CFD
• Simulation
• Solar Still
• MATLAB
• FLUENT