Pierre Meukam

A numerical model and experimental investigation for a solar still in climatic conditions in Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire)

A solar distillation in a single basin is studied theoretically and experimentally. We present a mathematical model to describe the energy balances for the glass cover, water in the basin and base plate. The model neglects the thermal capacity of the base plate and the temperature gradient through the width of the glass. The energy equations for the glass, water and absorber are simultaneously solved. The effects of water depth, wind speed and glass cover thickness on still productivity are evaluated. The daily total production increases with decreasing water depth. A small increasing of productivity occurs with the increase of wind speed. The thickness of the glass cover has no effect on the production. An experiment has been conducted to validate the mathematical model. The relative difference between experiment and theory is 5% for temperatures, and 15% for productivity.

Theoritical and experimental studies of a solar still type suitable for alcoholic distillation

Throught this work, a theoritical and experimental study of a small solar still of a domestic type with two distinct compartments has been lead. It is shown in this study that the Dunkles relation about the productivity of a classical still can be applied to our system in order to predict reasonably the production of our still. We have then put the stress on alcohol distillation for this model in order to adapt solar distillation to alcohol distillation. On this field, the results show well that solar energy can perfectly be used to produce alcohol with our prototype.

Modeling of Coupled Heat and Mass Transfers in a Stabilized Earthen Building Envelope with Thatched Fibers

In order to reduce the heat and mass transfers in buildings, which increase energy bills, the development of composites materials such as earth bricks stabilized with thatch fibers is important for their construction. This paper aims to study a one-dimensional model of heat and moisture transfer through porous building materials. The coupled phenomena of heat and mass transfer are described by the Luikov model. Equations and boundary conditions are discretized using the finite difference method. The results obtained illustrate the temporal evolutions of the temperature and the moisture content, as well as the distributions of the temperature and moisture content inside the wall. The profile of the temperature and water content that are obtained are compared with the other numerical solutions that are available in the literature.