Impact of Wind Speed on a Concentrating Solar Still

Access to freshwater remains a challenge in settings where conventional desalination may be difficult to deploy. Solar distillation offers a relatively simple approach, but the output of conventional stills is limited. This study numerically examines the influence of wind speed on a concentrating solar still comprising a double-slope basin still and a parabolic trough concentrator located beneath the evaporation basin. Heat-balance equations were formulated for the components and solved using the fourth-order Runge–Kutta method under climatic conditions representative of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The numerical analysis assessed distillate productivity, the instantaneous performance factor, and overall, internal and exergy efficiencies across wind speeds of 0.5–3.0 m/s. The simulated results indicate that increasing wind speed is associated with lower operating temperatures and reduced performance for the configuration examined. The highest reported distillate productivity, 1.2 × 10⁻³ kg/m²/s, occurred at 0.5 m/s, while the corresponding reported value at 3.0 m/s was 5.0 × 10⁻⁴ kg/m²/s. The Results section gives a maximum overall efficiency of 46.99% at 0.5 m/s and a minimum of 20.08% at 3.0 m/s. The reported exergy efficiency also declined as wind speed increased. These results suggest that wind-driven heat exchange is an important consideration in numerical assessments of concentrator-assisted solar distillation. Experimental testing remains necessary to establish the accuracy of the predicted performance.