Numerical Study on the Effect of dimension of Steps on the Performance of a Cascade Solar Still

The purpose The purpose of this study is to simulate fluid flow in a weir-type cascade solar still, assuming steady-state and air being the ideal gas and incompressible. The commercial software FLUENT is used for numerical simulation of the process. SIMPLE algorithm is used to calculate the relationship between pressure and velocity. In addition, first order upwind method is applied for separation of displacement and interpolation of pressure. The effective parameters on unit productivity are the distance between glass surface and water, height of solar still, the number of vortexes and convective heat transfer coefficient. Results of investigations on a Solar Still with different height of steps, indicated that the productivity increases with increasing the height of stairs. Although, it should be noted that in each model with specific number of stairs there is an upward-downward trend; in other words, there is an optimum point in each model with specific number of stairs. Also, the still in the specific model of six-stairs with the height of 3.5 cm of stairs had maximum productivity.