Discussion on solar still modeling: experimental and theoretical approaches

Abstract

In this paper it is presented a discussion about the methodology for the theoretical and experimental study of solar distillation after a brief review of the most representative studies in the field from theoretical, numerical and experimental approaches.  From this discussion, the following challenges are proposed in order to promote the advance in the analysis of solar stills: flow pattern visualization, velocity and concentration field measurement using optical techniques, optimization methods, and constructal theory, among others. This study shows that the tendency of solar still development has been the experimental approach to find correlations to predict heat transfer coefficients, distillate yield rate and efficiencies, whereas other theoretical and experimental methods have not been used up to this date, leaving interesting features of solar distillation unexplored.