KFUPM-ME Department

ME 460 Thermal Desalination Systems

Term 181 September 2018

HW 1 Solar Stills (Due Tuesday 25-9-2018)

Problem # 1

Consider the following EES program. Complete the program by adding the heat balance
equations and run the program to calculate:
a. Various heat transfer rate
b. Temperature of water at the end of the hour
c. Amount of water produces within this hour
The program

"Program to analyze the performance of a solar still, simplified so that the heat transfer ciefficients are given and the
calculations are averaged over one hour only"
"Data Section"
Dt = 3600 "time increment, one hour"
sigma = 5.67e-8 "Stefan Boltzmann Coefficient, W/m^2 K^4"
A = 1 "[(m^2)]"
T_a = 32 "ambient temperature C"
alpha_g = 0.1 "absorptivity of glass cover"
tau = 0.82 "transmissivity of glass cover"
alpha_w = 0.9 "absorptivity of water"
T_W_0 = 45.8 "initial water temperature C at the start of the hour"
g = 9.81 "[(m/s^2)]" "gravitational acceleration, m/s^2"
P_a = 101 "[kPa]"
m_water = 30 “mass of water in the still, kg”
"data of Hs exist for various hours"
G = 700 "solar irradiation W/m^2"
"======Properties section=========================================================="
T = 0.5*(T_W_0+T_w)
c_wb = SpecHeat(Water,T=T_W_0,x=0) "[(kg)]" "J/K"
h_1=Enthalpy(Water,T=T_W_0,x=0) "J/kg"
h_2 = Enthalpy(Water,T=T_W_0,x=1) "J/kg"
h_fg = h_2 - h_1 "J/kg"
"====================================================="
{Partial Pressure}
P_w = P_sat(Water,T = T)*convert(kPa, mmH2O) "!partial pressure. This need to be corrected"
P_wg = P_sat(Water,T = T_g)*convert(kPa, mmH2O) "partial pressure at T_g , kPa"
"=========Heat Balance========================================================="
"energy balance to the water, quasi- transient"

"This equation is an approximation for the glass, assuming it is is too thin and that the energy absorbed by the glass
mgcpg dTg/dt is too small to be considered, so steady stste analysis for the glass yields:"

“energy balance equation for the glass”

"radaition HT within the still"
"natural convection within the still"
m_D = 9.15e-7 * h_c * (P_w-P_wg)*3600 "This equation relied on the analogy between heat and mass transfer"
"evaporation within the solar still"
"losses through solar still walls"
"losses from the glass to the ambient air by
convection and radiation to the sky"
"==================heat transfer coefficient, in SI unit system======================"
h_c =2.54 [W/m^2K]
h_g-air =15 [W/m^2K]
U_g = 0.0057 [W/m^2K] "overall heat transfer coeffiricnet W/m^2 C"

Problem # 2

Consider the developed program in problem 1. Perform program runs to check and plot the following
effects on water temperature and productivity

a. Effect of G (Solar irradiation), range 500 -1000W/m2

b. Effect of outside air heat transfer coefficient h_g-air, 5 to 50 W/m2 K
c. Effect of water quantity in the still m_water, 5 to 50 kg

Problem # 3

Consider the solar still in the attached figure. Write the energy equations for the absorber surface
plate, water and Glass cover (consider glass storage of heat) within the still for the solar still shown
in the following figure.

Irradiation, G

Reflection surface
r = 0.85

Qg_air (Convection + Radiation)

qr
qe q tG
c
Absorber plate Sea water Sweet water

qb