PERFORMANCE STUDY ON

SINGLE SLOPE SOLAR STILL

WITH HANGING PYRAMID
ABSORBERS AND PCM

MINI PROJECT REPORT

Submitted by

R.ARAVINTH PRANAV (19ME006)

D.HARIKRISHNA (19ME037)
S.JEEVAN PRASANTH (19ME044)

in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree

of

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING

IN

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

KPR INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

ARASUR, COIMBATORE – 641407

ANNA UNIVERSITY: CHENNAI 600 025

APRIL 2023
 BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that this project “Performance Study on Single Slope Solar
Still with Hanging Pyramid Absorbers and PCM” is the bonafide work of
R.ARAVINTH PRANAV (19ME006), D.HARIKRISHNA (19ME037) and
S.JEEVAN PRASANTH (19ME044) who carried out the project work under
my supervision.
.

SIGNATURE OF THE HOD SIGNATURE OF THE SUPERVISOR

Dr. S. RAMESH BABU, Ph. D.,
Professor and Head
Department of Mechanical Engineering
KPR Institute of Engineering and Technology
Arasur, Coimbatore – 641407.
Dr. P. MANOJ KUMAR, Ph. D.,
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
KPR Institute of Engineering and Technology
Arasur, Coimbatore – 641407.

This report is submitted for university viva-voce examination held on

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We wish to convey our sincere thanks and gratitude to

Shri.K.P.Ramasamy, Chairman, KPR Institute of Engineering and Technology
who has provided all the facilities to us.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Dr.M.Akila, Principal

and Dr.A.M.Natarajan, Chief Executive for their continuous support and
encouragement throughout the project.

We are grateful to Dr.S. Ramesh Babu, Professor and Head, Department

of Mechanical Engineering for providing constructive suggestions and
encouragement during the project.

With a deep sense of gratitude, we extend our earnest and sincere thanks
to our project guide Dr.P. Manoj Kumar, Associate Professor, Department of
Mechanical Engineering for his guidance and encouragement during this
project.

We wish to place our deep sense of thanks to all the teaching and non-
teaching faculty of Department of Mechanical Engineering for their cooperation
and suggestions during the project work.

We also express our sincere thanks to our parents, friends and everyone
who has helped us generously for completing the project.
 LIST OF CONTENTS

CHAPTE PAGE
R TITLE NO.
ABSTRACT I
LIST OF FIGURES II
LIST OF TABLES IV

1 INTRODUCTION 1
1
.
1 Background 1
1
.
2 Desalination 3
1
.
3 Distillation 4
1.3.1 Solar distillation 4
1.3.2 Natural evaporation 4
1.3.3 Vacuum distillation 5
1.3.4 Multi-stage flash distillation 5
1.3.5 Multiple-effect distillation 5
1
.
4 Solar still 6
1.4.1 Principle of solar still 7
1.4.2 Application of solar still 8
1
. Addition of phase change material (PCM)
5 to 9
the still
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2 Introduction 10
.
 1
2
.
2 Theoretical studies about the solar still 10
2
.
3 Experimental works on the solar still 12
2
.
4 Experimental works on solar still with 14
Increased surface area
2
.
5 Experimental works on solar still 15
involving pcm
2
.
6 Conclusion drawn from literature review 15
3 FABRICATION OF SOLAR STILL
3
.
1 Methodology for fabrication 17
3
.
2 Design objectives for solar still 17
3.2.1 Efficiency of solar still 18
3.2.2 Feed water temperature 18
3.2.3 Glass surface temperature 18
3.2.4 Design considerations 18
3
.
3 Fabrication of angled basin 19
3.3.1 Construction of angled basin 19
3.3.2 Problems in solar stills that can
reduce 19
efficiency
3.3.3 Construction models for solar still 20
3 Detailed design of components of basin 22
 .
4
3.4.1 Basin base absorber plate 22
3.4.2 Basin 23
3.4.3 Top cover 24
PREPARATION OF THE PYRAMID
4 WITH
ABSORBERS AND ENCAPSULATING
PHASE CHANGE MATERIAL
4
.
1 Introduction 25
4
.
2 Material selection and specifications 27
4.2.1 Metal sheet selection for pyramid 27
absorbers
4.2.2 Shape selection for the pyramid 28
absorber
4.2.3 Selection of phase change material 28
4
.
3 Process involved fabrication of pyramid 30
absorbers
4.3.1 Cutting and folding aluminium sheet 30
4.3.2 Encapsulating the pyramid absorbers 31
with paraffin wax
4.3.3 Sealing the pyramid absorbers 34
5 EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF THE
SOLAR STILL
5
.
1 Introduction 36
5
. Instrumentation and data acquisition 36
 2
5
.
3 Instrumentation 37
5.3.1 Temperature indicator 37
5.3.2 Beaker 38
5
.
4 Experimental setup 39
5
.
5 Experimental analysis of temperature and 40
productivity of normal solar still
5
.
6 Experimental analysis of temperature and 42
productivity of solar still integrated with
pyramids
5.6.1 Preparation of pyramid array 42
5.6.2 Attaching the pyramid arrays to the
still 42
5.6.3 Final setup and experimental
procedure 43
5
.
7 Conclusion 45
6 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
6
.
1 Introduction 46
6
.
2 Solar radiation readings 46
6
.
3 Standard solar still performance without 49
modification

6.3.1 (Day -1) Conventional solar still 49

 performance analysis
6.3.2 (Day-2) Conventional solar still 51
performance analysis
6.3.3 (Day-3) Conventional solar still
performance analysis
6.3.4 (Day 1-3) Conventional solar still 54
Performance mean data
6
.
4 Modified solar still performance 55
6.4.1 (Day-4) Modified solar still 56
performance analysis
6.4.2 (Day-5) Modified solar still 58
performance analysis
6.4.3 (Day-6) Modified solar still 59
performance analysis
6.4.4 (Day 4-6) Modified solar still 61
performance mean data
6
.
5 Comparison of performance between 63
standard solar still and modified solar still
7 CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
 ABSTRACT

Solar stills have been proposed to be a feasible solution for the fresh
water production from the saline water. An experiment was conducted to
improve the productivity of the solar still by Harris Samuel by increasing the
surface area which proves that increasing the surface area improves the
productivity. The objective of the present investigation is to experiment the use
of an hanging pyramid absorbers encapsulated with PCM to improve the
performance of a single sloped conventional solar still (SSCSS) considering its
water production rate by increasing the solar radiation absorption area and store
excess energy.
Two arrangements of the SSCSS were experimented in this study. The
first one was the still without hanging pyramid absorbers, the second one was
still incorporated with PCM encapsulated hanging pyramid absorbers. The
average output achieved without and with modification are 455 mL and 620 mL
(36%) respectively with significant improvement in the overall internal
temperature from 46 oC to 49 oC.

I
 LIST OF FIGURES

PAG
FIGURE E
NO. TITLE NO.
1.1 Potable water standards according to WHO 1
Distribution of surface water and potable water
1.2 in 2
earth
1.3 Solar still working principle 7
3.1 Methodology for solar still fabrication 17
3.2 Fabricated Angled basin assembled 20
3.3 Design model for glass 20
3.4 Construction model for solar still 21
3.5 Aluminium Sheet 22
3.6 Fiberglass Body of the sill 23
3.7 Top cover for the solar still 24
4.1 Folded pyramid absorber 31
4.2 Melting wax in hot plate in lab 32
4.3 Melting wax in stove 32
4.4 Wax encapsulated pyramids set to cool down 33
4.5 Wax melting and pouring workspace 33
4.6 Painting the pyramids 34
4.7 Drying painted pyramids 35
5.1 Temperature indicator 37
5.2 Thermocouples used along with the temperature 38
indicator
5.3 Thermocouple positions for reading water 40
temperature
5.4 Conventional solar still setup 41
5.5 Pyramid absorbers attached to metal strings 42
5.6 Pyramid absorber array incorporated in the solar 43
still
5.7 Thermocouple attached to the pyramid absorbers 44
5.8 Solar still set up with pyramid arrays 44
6.1 Solar radiation readings day 1-3 47
6.2 Solar radiation readings day 4-6 48
6.3 Solar radiation reading comparison between day 48
1-3 and day 4-6
6.4 Water temperature obtained on day - 1 50
6.5 Distillate output obtained on day - 1 50
6.6 Water temperature obtained on day - 2 51
6.7 Distillate output obtained on day - 2 52
6.8 Water temperature obtained on day - 3 53
6.9 Distillate output obtained on day - 3 53
6.10 Average water temperature obtained on day 1-3 54
6.11 Average distillate output obtained on day 1-3 55
6.12 Water temperature obtained on day - 4 57
6.13 Distillate output obtained on day - 4 57
6.14 Water temperature obtained on day - 5 58
6.15 Distillate output obtained on day - 5 59
6.16 Water temperature obtained on day - 6 60
6.17 Distillate output obtained on day - 6 60
6.18 Average water temperature obtained on day 4-6 61
6.19 Average distillate output obtained on day 4-6 62
Comparison of average water temperature with
6.20 and 63
without pyramid absorbers
6.21 Comparison of average distillate output with and 64
without pyramid absorbers
III
IV
 LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE
NO. TITLE NO.
6.1 Solar radiations readings 47
6.2 Experimental values obtained on day - 1 49
6.3 Experimental values obtained on day - 2 51
6.4 Experimental values obtained on day - 3 52
6.5 Average of day 1-3 experimental readings 54
6.6 Experimental values obtained on day - 4 56
6.7 Experimental values obtained on day - 5 58
6.8 Experimental values obtained on day - 6 59
6.9 Average of day 4-6 experimental readings 61

III