PARAMETRIC OPTIMIZATION FOR IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF SINGLE SLOPE SOLAR STILL THROUGH EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES

An attempt is made to improve the performance of single slope solar still for the production of fresh water in this study. The prime aim is to experimentally investigate the influence of control factors namely stone quantity, sea water level and double glazing on the yield of t he solar still. Nine experiments were conducted based on Taguchi’s orthogonal array. It is noted that double glazing effect makes substantial improvement in the yield of solar still. A non - linear regression model is also developed for the process. The opti mum parametric conditions are found through the Taguchi method and genetic algorithm. It is confirmed that the optimum conditions exhibit nearly 57% enhancement in the yield than the yield of conventional solar still without stone bed and double glazing ef fect.