Heat transfer coefficients and productivity of a single slope single basin solar still in Indian climatic condition: Experimental and theoretical comparison

A theoretical and experimental study was conducted at the central Indian location of Rewa, M.P., India (Latitude: 24 °33 20.81 N, Longitude: 81 °18 49.1 E). This paper presents a detailed comparison of the theoretical and the experimental results obtained for a single sloped basin type solar still. Results for dif- ferent parameters such as basin water temperature, glass cover temperature, distillate output, evaporative, convective and radiative heat transfer coefficients and attenuation factor were obtained for basin water depths ranging from 2 cm to 10 cm. For solar still, daily distillate output decreased with increase in basin water depth. The theoretical value of daily efficiency for 2 cm and 10 cm basin water depth was around 52.83% and 41.75%, respectively, and for the same basin water depth, experimental daily efficiency was around 41.49% and 32.42% respectively. A sound agreement between the theoretical and the experimental results was observed.