Modares Mechanical Engineering

Modares Mechanical Engineering

Mathematical Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Flat-Plate Solar Still with Porous and Phase Change Materials from an Energy and Exergy Perspective

Document Type : Original Research

Authors
Kamiyar Karimi Birgani 1
Milad Setareh 1
Hassan Basirat Tabrizi 2
1 Jundi-Shapur University of Technology, Dezful, Iran
2 Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
10.48311/mme.2025.11466
Abstract
In recent years, the issue of drinking water scarcity has emerged as one of the most critical challenges facing humanity. Consequently, the evaluation of water purification systems' performance has garnered significant interest among researchers. Additionally, given the rise in energy consumption and the excessive reliance on fossil fuels, the adoption of renewable energy sources such as solar energy is becoming increasingly prevalent. This study presents a mathematical modeling of the energy and exergy of a flat-plate solar still system utilizing porous materials and phase change materials. To assess the performance of the system, energy balance equations are formulated for various components, including the glass, brine, absorber plate, and phase change material. These equations are solved using MATLAB software to evaluate the impact of incorporating porous and phase change materials as innovative methods on the efficiency and energy and exergy performance of solar still. Results indicate that the overall energy and exergy efficiencies improve by 15.07% and 1.04%, respectively, in the simultaneous presence of porous and phase change materials compared to the base case. In the case of phase change material alone, the improvements are 11.04% and 0.62%, respectively, compared to the base case. For porous material alone, the improvements are 3.15% and 0.32%, respectively. Furthermore, the production of freshwater increases by 23.72%, 17.88%, and 6.17%, respectively, in the presence of both porous material and phase change material, phase change material alone, and porous material alone, compared to the base case
Keywords
Solar Still
Porous Material
Phase change material
Efficiency
energy
Exergy

Subjects

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Modares Mechanical Engineering
Volume 25, Issue 3
March 2025
Pages 125-135