Modeling and Analysis of Desalination in A Solar Dome Using CFD

Abstract

Although solar energy has gained popularity in the distillation of brine to produce potable water due to the increasing costs of fossil fuels and environmental concerns, its use in this process remains limited by factors such as applicability and cost. Consequently, there is a need to investigate modeling, transmission characteristics, and estimation of solar basin parameters to develop an efficient design. In response to this need, a two-dimensional model of evaporation and condensation processes in static solar energy was created using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. The simulation aimed to facilitate the development of a solar dome device. The solar dome's water temperature ranged from 48 to 59℃ at peak times, with an evaporation rate of 41 W/m²℃, an evaporation coefficient of 6 W/m²℃, and a freshwater production rate of 0.45 kg/m³ h. Both the volume of freshwater produced and the water temperature were found to be satisfactory. CFD was employed to calculate the convective and evaporative heat transfer coefficients. This study illustrates that CFD is a powerful tool for designing, evaluating, and diagnosing solar desalination systems.