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Effect of far-field ambient conditions on interfacial solar vapor generation using a two-phase closed thermosyphon

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Abstract

The fundamental heat/mass transport mechanism from the vapor-generating surfaces related to interfacial solar vapor generators for desalination applications has received less attention. The majority of the investigations in this regard were not carried out inside controlled environmental facilities, and the operating conditions for different proposed configurations in the literature varied. Although few investigations have reported theoretical framework and computational simulations of the heat/mass transport phenomena during the interfacial evaporation involved in such cases, no systematic experimental investigation exists in the literature. In the present study, a controlled environmental test section capable of having different far-field ambient conditions and maintaining a quiescent environment, is designed and fabricated. The performance of a thermosyphon-based heat localization strategy proposed by the authors for efficient and reliable vapor generation was tested in this test section. Different far-field ambient conditions (RH = 30%–80% and Tamb = 25–42 °C) are investigated on the evaporating mass flux and heat-to-vapor conversion efficiency. The experimentally obtained evaporative mass flux was compared against three Sherwood—Rayleigh empirical correlations for natural convection-driven evaporation. It was shown that the existing relations matched well for the cases that fell within the assigned range of Rayleigh number of these correlations.

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Abbreviations

A e :

area of evaporation surface (m2)

C :

equilibrium molar concentration of water vapor

D :

diffusion coefficient (m2/s)

E :

solar irradiation (W/m2)

g :

acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)

Gr :

Grashof number (\(g\Delta \rho L_{\rm{c}}^3\)/(ρv2))

h :

enthalpy of moist air (kJ/kg)

h fg :

latent heat of evaporation (J/kg)

h L :

sensible heat of evaporation (J/kg)

h m :

mass transfer coefficient (m/s)

I :

input current (A)

L c :

characteristic length (m)

\({\dot m}\) :

mass flow rate (kg/s)

\({{\dot m}^{\prime \prime }}\) :

evaporative mass flux (kg/(m2·s))

P :

pressure (Pa)

Pe :

Peclet number (uintδ/D)

p w :

partial pressure of water vapor (Pa)

Ra :

Rayleigh number (\(g\Delta \rho L_{\rm{c}}^3/(\rho vD)\))

Ri :

Richardson number (\(g\beta \Delta T{L_{\rm{c}}}/U_{\rm{o}}^2\))

R G :

gas constant (J/(kg·K))

R th :

thermal resistance of thermosyphon (K/W)

Sc :

Schmidt number (v/D)

T :

temperature (K)

u :

velocity (m/s)

V :

input voltage (V)

α m :

empirical constant

α s :

solar absorptivity

β :

coefficient of thermal expansion (1/K)

δ :

diffusive boundary layer thickness (m)

μ :

dynamic viscosity (Pa·s)

ν :

kinematic viscosity (m2/s)

ϑ :

empirical constant

η :

thermal efficiency

ρ :

density (kg/m3)

ϕ :

relative humidity (%)

ω :

absolute humidity

\(\wp \) :

perimeter of the evaporating surface (m)

A:

adiabatic section

a:

air

avg:

average

C:

condenser section

c:

critical

da:

dry air

E:

evaporator section

G:

gas

int:

interface

ma:

moist air

ma,a:

moist air at ambient

ma,s:

moist air at the evaporating surface

ref:

reference

S:

vapor generating surface

tot:

total

w:

water vapor

w,a:

water vapor at ambient

w,s:

water vapor at the evaporating surface

GOR:

gain output ratio

RH:

relative humidity

STD:

solar thermal desalination

SWP:

specific water productivity

TPCT:

two-phase closed thermosyphon

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful for research funding provided by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, under the Core Research Grant (CRG) from Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) [CRG/2020/000584], and by the Ministry of Textile, Government of India, under the National Technical Textile Mission (NTTM, Scheme code: 3972), Sanction code: 2/3/2021-NTTM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, 208016, India

    Tarun Kulshrestha, Debartha Chatterjee & Sameer Khandekar

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  1. Tarun Kulshrestha
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  2. Debartha Chatterjee
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  3. Sameer Khandekar
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Correspondence to Debartha Chatterjee.

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Kulshrestha, T., Chatterjee, D. & Khandekar, S. Effect of far-field ambient conditions on interfacial solar vapor generation using a two-phase closed thermosyphon. Exp. Comput. Multiph. Flow (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42757-023-0186-6

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