Experimental study of the effect of distilled water-conducting threads on the performance of stepped solar still

Because saltwater covers the majority of the Earth's surface and solar energy is readily available, water treatment using solar energy has piqued academics' interest. A stepped solar still was built and tested experimentally in Arak as part of this study. For this purpose, the effect of five input parameters on the amount of freshwater production per unit area of absorber plate as the output variable was investigated using the Taguchi design of experiment method, including saline water flow rate, device angle, absorber plate color, number, and spacing of distilled water-conducting threads in each row. This research is unique in that it uses plastic threads to create channels on the cover glass surface that lead distilled water to the freshwater tank. In addition, the simultaneous study of the effect of input parameters is one of the innovations of this research. According to the findings, the highest freshwater output of 1975 ml/m2, was obtained when the input saline water flow rate was 50 ml/min, the device angle was 40 °, the absorber plate was black, the number of water-conducting threads in each row was 2, and the row spacing was 8 mm. Also, the research showed that using two water-conducting threads in each row and spacing them 8 mm apart increased the amount of water produced per unit of surface area.