A New Method for Solar Desalination Analysis Using ANSYS: Simplifying Models with Dunkle’s Relation

The expansion of the industrial and automotive sectors has increased pollution, highlighting the need for clean drinking water. Solar desalination, which harnesses solar energy for water purification, is promising but struggles with low production rates. This study aims to simplify traditional distiller analysis methods using ANSYS, focusing on the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method and user-defined functions (UDF). The proposed approach uses a conventional stationary solar still model with fundamental conservation principles and the k-ε RNG turbulence model. Dunkle’s relation is integrated to simplify modeling and reduce computational effort. The effectiveness of the method is evaluated by comparing two cases: one with VOF activated and the other without. Results showed minimal differences, with a maximum deviation in average temperatures of 0.169 °C and a productivity difference of 0.0286 kg/m2·h. The highest productivity error percentage was 0.98%, with a root mean square error of 1.1455 for glass temperature. Validation against Gaurav Mittal’s study, which used a single-slope solar still with a 30° tilted glass cover, showed near-identical results, with a correction coefficient of 0.9994 and a root mean square error of 0.379. These findings confirm that the proposed method is simpler, time-efficient, and highly accurate.