Impact of different fins designs on performance of solar still desalination system: a review

The world faces two significant challenges: the lack of clean water and the other is the lack of conventional energy sources. Hence, research on solar desalination is very crucial to fight against these challenges. Interestingly, in recent years, various fin geometries are used to enhance the productivity of solar stills. Heat transfer through the fins is an essential variable in structuring applications of solar desalination systems. A fin is a useful contrivance that utilizes in solar stills to build a structuring area. Augmentation of surface structure zone prompts heat transfer. Analysts have used fins in the solar stills to expand the territory of the water surface. Thus, the temperature of the water is enhanced. In this paper, impact of fins in the present scenario is analyzed based on the existing literature. Further, the importance of thermal modeling in fins is discussed. The main focus of this review is to cover the impact of fin geometrical designs vis-a-vis circular fins, rectangular fins, square fins, pin fins and factors affecting the performance. Among them, circular fins are better for solar still desalination. The distillate output varies from 0.49 to 6.5 kg/m(2) without fin and 0.58-7.5 kg/m(2) with fin. The thermal efficiencies of various fins are 34% for pin fins, 36.7% for square, 47.36% for rectangular, and 57.69% for circular fins. It is found that the average cost for producing fresh water with fins and without fins is ranging between $ 0.017 to $ 0.041 and $ 0.019 to $ 0.049 per liter water.