Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538

www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

E€ect of wind speed on some designs of solar stills

A.A. El-Sebaii
Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt
Received 5 January 1999; accepted 14 June 1999

Abstract

The e€ect of wind speed V on the daily productivity Pd of some designs of basin type and vertical
solar stills is investigated by computer simulation. Numerical calculations have been performed on
typical summer and winter days in Tanta in order to correlate Pd with V for di€erent masses of basin
water mw for basin type stills and various thicknesses of ¯owing water dw for the vertical still. It is
found that Pd increases with the increase of wind speed up to a typical velocity Vt beyond which the
increase in Pd becomes insigni®cant. For the present stills, Vt was found to be 10 and 8 m/s on typical
summer and winter days, respectively. The value of Vt is independent of the still shape and heat
capacity of the brine. The wind is more e€ective in summer and at higher water masses. Further, the
maximum daily productivity can be obtained at the lowest heat capacity of the brine and the rate of still
productivity decreases with increased water mass. This e€ect is more pronounced in winter than in
summer due to the lower solar radiation. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Basin type stills; Vertical stills; Wind speed; Productivity

1. Introduction

Solar distillation is one of the important and technically viable applications of solar energy.
A review of the literature illustrates that a considerable amount of work has been done by
Malik et al. [1] for studying basin type solar stills. To improve the productivity of single e€ect
stills, e€orts have been made to re-utilize the released latent heat of condensation by having
more than one stage for the evaporation and condensation processes in the still. As a result,

E-mail address: aasebaii@decl.tanta.eun.eg (A.A. El-Sebaii).

0196-8904/00/$ - see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 9 6 - 8 9 0 4 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 1 9 - 3
524 A.A. El-Sebaii / Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538

Nomenclature

Ag surface area of glass cover (m2)

Age, Agw surface areas of east and west facing glass covers of DSSBSMR, respectively
(m2)
Am total surface area of the outer mirrors (m2)
Ame, Amw surface areas of east and west facing mirrors, respectively (m2)
Ap surface area of evaporating surface (m2)
C height of mirror (m)
cw speci®c heat of water (J/kg K)
DSSBS double slope single basin still without mirrors
DSSBSMR double slope single basin still with outer mirrors
dw thickness of ¯owing water for VS (m)
Ie, Iw global solar radiation incident directly on east and west glass covers,
respectively (W/m2)
Im,e, Im,w global solar radiation incident on east and west mirrors, respectively (W/m2)
Irm,e, Irm,w global solar radiation re¯ected from east and west mirrors, respectively (W/
m2)
It total solar radiation received by still cover (W/m2)
Le, Lw gap between absorber plate and glass cover for east and west channels of
vertical still, respectively (m)
mwl, mwu mass of lower and upper basins water (SSDBS), respectively (kg)
m_ mass ¯ow rate of ¯owing water for VS (kg/s)
Ph hourly productivity (kg/m2 h)
Pd daily productivity (kg/m2 day)
r width of glass cover (m)
s distance from upper edge of mirror to outer edge of glass cover (m)
SSDBS single slope double basin still
SSSBS single slope single basin still
Tg, Tw temperatures of glass cover and basin water, respectively (K)
V wind speed (m/s)
VS vertical still
Z depth of basin water (m)
ag ,ap absorptivities of glass and evaporating surface, respectively
eg ,ew emissivities of glass and water, respectively
tg ,tw transmissivities of glass and water, respectively
C angle between mirror and glass cover (degree)
F glass cover tilt angle (degree)
rm mirror re¯ectivity
 A.A. El-Sebaii / Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538 525

the double basin stills [2], di€usion stills [3], multiple e€ect stills [4] and wick type stills [5] have
been constructed and investigated. Vertical solar stills [6,7] (VS) may be conveniently used in
places where land area is expensive or sucient horizontal space is not available for
installation of basin type stills.
There are many parameters in¯uencing solar still productivity, such as solar radiation
intensity, ambient temperature, wind speed, design parameters and operational parameters. The
most important parameter is the basin water temperature which depends strongly on the depth
(mass) of the basin water. The basin water temperature can be increased by decreasing the
mass of basin water or by increasing the amount of solar radiation incident on the still cover.
Many investigators have studied the e€ect of climatic parameters on the performance of solar
stills. It has been concluded that the productivity of the solar still increases with the increase of
solar radiation [8] and ambient air temperature [8,9]. It has been demonstrated by many
investigators that the shallower the brine depth in the still, the higher is the total daily
productivity [10,11]. In a recent experimental and theoretical study on a single basin still [12], it
was found that the daylight productivity of the still decreases as the mass of basin water
increases, and the reverse is the case overnight. At higher water masses, the daily productivity
of the still becomes less dependent on the mass of basin water.
It should be pointed out that there are con¯icting results about the e€ect of wind on still
productivity. According to Garg et al. [8], Copper [13], Rajvanshi [14], Soliman [15] and Malik
and Tran [16], an increase in wind speed causes an increase in productivity, while Eibling et al.
[9], Hollands [17] and Yeh and Chen [18,19] concluded that an increase in wind speed causes a
decrease in productivity. It has also been reported by Morse et al. [20] that the wind speed has
no signi®cant e€ect on productivity. In our previous study, it has been found that the daily
productivity of a vertical solar still increases with the increase of wind speed (V ) up to a
typical value of V [6]. Therefore, the main objective of this work is a detailed study about the
e€ect of wind speed on the daily productivity of some designs of solar stills. The selected
systems include the single slope single basin (SSSBS), double slope single basin with
(DSSBSMR) and without (DSSBS) outer mirrors, single slope double basin (SSDBS) and
vertical solar stills (VS). Numerical calculations have been performed for typical summer and
winter days in Tanta (Lat. 308 47' N) with a wide (nominal) range of wind speed from 0 to 30
m/s for di€erent masses of water in the stills. The daily productivity is correlated with the mass
of basin water (mw) and wind speed (V ) using a least square method. It has been found that,
for all systems under investigation, the daily productivity increases with the increase of V up to
a typical velocity (Vt) whose value is independent of mw but it shows some seasonal
dependence. Typical values of Vt are obtained as 10 and 8 m/s for the summer and winter
seasons, respectively.

2. Description of the investigated stills

Very few papers have appeared concerning the use of re¯ectors (mirrors) to enhance the
solar radiation utilized by solar stills. Mousa et al. [21] have investigated a double exposure
single basin solar still using internal mirrors. Tamimi [22] investigated a conventional design of
a single basin solar still with and without inner mirrors. It has been concluded that the
526 A.A. El-Sebaii / Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538

Fig. 1. Schematic of solar stills under study: (a) SSSBS; (b) DSSBSMR; (c) SSDBS and (d) VS.
 A.A. El-Sebaii / Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538 527

installation of mirrors on the inside walls of the still enhances productivity considerably.
Recently, a new design of solar stills consisting of a metallic cylindrical parabolic re¯ector has
been studied by Minasian et al. [23]. They showed that the productivity of the new still was
25±35% greater than that of a conventional basin type still. A disadvantage of using mirrors
inside solar stills is the rapid spoiling of the used mirrors. Therefore, one of the considered
systems in this work is a double slope single basin solar still with outer mirrors (DSSBSMR) as
shown in Fig. 1(b). As far as we know no previous work has appeared in the literature
concerning the use of outer mirrors with solar stills. The still is also studied without mirrors,
hence, it may be abbreviated as DSSBS. The other stills which are investigated in this paper
are the SSSBS, the SSDBS and the VS. The evaporating surfaces of the stills are assumed to
have an area of 1 m2. For basin type stills, the glass covers are assumed to make an inclination
angle of 108 with respect to the horizontal. Schematic diagrams of the stills under study are
shown in Fig. 1. The SSSBS and SSDBS are oriented to face south, while the DSSBSMR,
DSSBS and VS are oriented to face east±west in order to receive most of the incident solar
radiation. Detailed descriptions, transient mathematical models and analytical solutions of the
energy balance equations for the SSSBS, SSDBS and VS can be found in our previous work in
Refs. [12,24,6], respectively. In the case of the DSSBSMR, the energy balance equations are
similar to those for the SSSBS except the total solar radiation It incident on the still cover
consists of the global solar radiation incident directly on both east and west facing glass covers
and that re¯ected to the cover from the east and west facing mirrors (see Fig. 1(b)).
Mathematically, It may be expressed as

It ˆ …Ie ‡ Iw † ‡ Irm,w ‡ Irm,e …1†

with
Im,w rm Fmg Am
Irm,w ˆ ÿ
…2†
Ag =2

and
Im,e rm Fmg Am
Irm,e ˆ ÿ
…3†
Ag =2

where Fmg is the view factor and it may be expressed as [25]

…C ‡ r ÿ s †
Fmg ˆ …4†
2r
with
 1=2
s2 ˆ C 2 ‡ r2 ÿ 2Cr cos C : …5†

where C is the mirror tilt angle, the angle between the mirror and glass cover. It is calculated
with the aid of a computer program based on the Liu and Jordan correlation for calculation of
global solar radiation on tilted surfaces [25]. Fig. 2 shows Iw, Ie, Irm,w, Irm,e and It for a typical
528 A.A. El-Sebaii / Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538

winter day (26 December) as an example. It is seen that the total solar radiation It incident on
the still cover is enhanced by use of two mirrors hinged outside the still.

3. Numerical calculations

Heat transfer from a still cover to the surroundings occurs by radiation to the sky and by
forced convection, due to wind speed, to ambient air. The wind heat transfer coecient hw is
calculated from [26]
hw ˆ 2:8 ‡ 3V; for VR5 m=s;

ˆ 6:15V 0:8 ; for V > 5 m=s: …6†

Numerical calculations have been performed using the computer programs that were developed
for solution of the energy balance equations for the various stills. The input parameters to
these programs are climatic, design and operational parameters. Fig. 3 shows the diurnal
variations of the measured solar intensities and ambient temperatures on typical summer (5
June) and winter (26 December) days in Tanta which are employed for calculation of the total
solar radiation incident on the covers of the stills. The values of the relevant parameters taken
for the numerical calculations are

Common parameters:
tg ˆ 0:9 eg ˆ 0:88

Fig. 2. Diurnal variations of solar radiation incident on east and west facing glass covers …Ie ‡ Iw †, east and west
outer mirrors …Ime ‡ Imw † and that re¯ected from the mirrors …Irm,e ‡ Irm,w † of DSSBSMR on a winter day. The total
radiation It is also shown.
 A.A. El-Sebaii / Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538 529

ag ˆ 0:05 ew ˆ 0:95
Ag ˆ 1:015 m2 A p ˆ 1 m2
cw ˆ 4190 (J/kg K) ap ˆ 0:90
tw ˆ 0:38 ÿ 0:08 ln Z [27] F ˆ 108

DSSBSMR and DSSBS:

C ˆ 1008 (summer) Am ˆ Amw ‡ Ame ˆ 1:0154 m2
C ˆ 508 (winter) rm ˆ 0:85
Ag ˆ Agw ‡ Age ˆ 1:0154 m2 C ˆ r ˆ 0:508 m

VS:
Lw ˆ Le ˆ 0:1 m m_ ˆ 0:005 kg/s
dw ˆ 0:002 ÿ 0:05 m tw ˆ 0:95

SSDBS:
mwu ˆ 25 kg
A detailed description of the method of numerical calculation may be found elsewhere
[6,12,24]. The hourly productivity Ph of the stills is calculated using the following equation
ÿ
3600
Ph ˆ hewg Tw ÿ Tg  …7†
Lw
where hewg is the evaporative heat transfer coecient, and Lw is the latent heat of vaporization
of water. The daily productivity is calculated from

Fig. 3. Diurnal variations of solar intensities and ambient temperatures on typical summer and winter days.
530 A.A. El-Sebaii / Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538
X
Pd ˆ Ph …8†
24 hrs

Because the daily productivity of a solar still is a strong function of the mass of basin water
(mw), numerical calculations have been performed for di€erent values of mw from 25 to 200 kg
for a nominal wide range of wind speed from 0 to 30 m/s in an attempt to correlate the daily
productivity with V for di€erent values of mw during the summer and winter seasons.

4. Results and discussions

Numerical calculations are made for the selected stills using the same weather conditions of
typical summer and winter days. Here, we will present some of the obtained results. Fig. 4
displays the variations of the daily Pd, daylight Pdl and overnight Pon productivities with wind
speed V for the DSSBSMR when the mass of basin water mw equals 100 and 150 kg on a
summer day. It is clear that Pd increases as V increases until a typical value of V (we assign
this velocity as Vt) beyond which Pd becomes less dependent on V. For mw ˆ 150 kg (as an
example), Pd is increased about 0.957 (kg/m2 day) as V increases from 0 to 10 m/s. From 10 to
30 m/s, the increase in Pd was only 0.159 (kg/m2 day). Similar results have been obtained by
Copper [13]. He outlined that for average wind velocities from 0 to 4.8 m/h, the output
increased by 11.5%, while from 4.8 to 19.7 m/h, the increase was only 1.5%, indicating the
decreasing e€ect of wind at higher velocities. It is also seen from Fig. 4 that the daylight
productivity Pdl increases rapidly as V increases. After sunset, the overnight productivity Pon
decreases slowly with increasing V, possibly, due to rapid cooling of the still at higher values of
V. These results are in agreement with those drawn by Kamal [28] in his theoretical study of

Fig. 4. Variations of daily (Pd), daylight (Pdl) and overnight (Pon) productivities of DSSBSMR with wind speed V
on a summer day when mass of basin water (mw) equals 100 and 150 kg.
 A.A. El-Sebaii / Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538 531

basin type solar stills. Beyond Vt, the increase in daylight productivity compensates for the
decrease in overnight productivity, thus, the daily productivity of the still becomes independent
of wind velocities higher than Vt. Similar behavior of Pd vs. V has been obtained for all the
stills under investigation.
Figs. 5 and 6 summarize the hourly variations of the basin water Tw (Fig. 5) and glass cover
Tg (Fig. 6) temperatures of the DSSBSMR when mw ˆ 100 kg and V ˆ 0,3,5,8,10,12,15 and 20
m/s on a summer day. From these ®gures, it is obvious that as V increases over a solar still,
heat is removed from the cover by convection more rapidly. This lowers the cover temperature
Tg which should increase the rate of condensation inside the still. However, as the cover
temperature decreases, the rate of heat transfer from the basin water to the cover also
increases. The water temperature Tw is thereby decreased as V increases. It is also seen from
the results of Figs. 5 and 6 that the decrease in Tw and Tg becomes insigni®cant for values of
wind speed higher than Vt (10 m/s). Moreover, the temperature di€erence between the water
and glass …Tw ÿ Tg † for di€erent values of V for the DSSBSMR when mw ˆ 100 kg is
presented in Fig. 7 for a summer day. It is clear that …Tw ÿ Tg † increases as V increases,
especially during the period from mid-day until sunset, thus, the daylight productivity increases
as V increases. Therefore, the daily productivity is increased with increasing V (see Fig. 4) due
to the increased water±glass temperature di€erence more than compensating for the decrease in
both temperatures. It is also seen from Fig. 7 that after sunset, …Tw ÿ Tg † slightly decreases as
V increases, hence, the overnight productivity decreases with an increases of V. It is worth
mentioning that comparisons between the daily productivity Pd of the double slope single basin
solar still with (DSSBSMR) and without (DSSBS) mirrors have been made for di€erent values
of mw. It is found that, for all investigated values of mw, Pd of the DSSBSMR is about 19 and

Fig. 5. Hourly variations of basin water temperature (Tw) with wind speed (V ) for DSSBSMR on a summer day.
Curves from up to down are for V = 0, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 15 and 20 m/s.
532 A.A. El-Sebaii / Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538

Fig. 6. The same as for Fig. 5 but for glass cover temperature (Tg).

Fig. 7. Water±glass temperature di€erence as a function of time for DSSBSMR for various wind speeds (V ) when
mw ˆ 100 kg on a summer day.
 A.A. El-Sebaii / Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538 533

30% higher than that of the DSSBS during the summer and winter, respectively, due to the
increased basin water temperature and water±glass temperature di€erence.
Fig. 8 illustrates the hourly variations of water±glass temperature di€erence …Tw ÿ Tg † for
the east facing channel, as an example, of the VS with wind speed V on a summer day. It is
shown that …Tw ÿ Tg † increases with an increase of V until Vt (10 m/s). After Vt, …Tw ÿ Tg †
becomes less dependent on V. Since the overnight productivity of the vertical still equals zero,
and the value of Vt was found equal to that for the investigated basin type stills (10 m/s), it
may be concluded that beyond Vt, the increase in productivity is insigni®cant, possibly because
at higher wind velocities, the limitation on heat transfer is imposed by the conductance of the
glass and not by the external heat transfer coecient [14].
In an attempt to check if Vt depends on the mass of basin water mw, calculations were done
for di€erent mw from 25 to 200 kg. Examples of the obtained results are summarized in Figs. 9
and 10, respectively, for the SSSBS on a summer day and for the SSDBS on a winter day.
From the results of these ®gures, it is evident that Vt is almost independent of mw. During a
typical winter day (26 December), Vt for the investigated stills was found to be 8 m/s (see Fig.
10). Therefore, it can be concluded that Vt is independent of both the still shape and the heat
capacity of the brine, but it may vary with the season. Further, with increasing V from 0 to Vt
on a summer day, the daily productivity of the SSSBS was found to increase by 5.9, 13.4, 19.2,
23.3 and 26.2%, respectively, when mw equals 75, 100, 125, 150 and 175 kg (see Fig. 10). On a
winter day, Pd of the same system was found to increase by 4, 8.1, 10.5 and 11.6% when mw
equals 75, 100, 125 and 150 kg, respectively, indicating the increasing e€ect of wind at higher
values of mw during the summer. A suggested decrease in productivity with increasing wind
speed in Refs. [9,17±19] may be due to an incomplete interpretation of the heat and mass
transfer modes and/or their systems were not vapour tight. Garg et al. [8] reported that if there
is a small hole in the still, the increased wind speed will decrease the productivity.

Fig. 8. The same as for Fig. 7 but for the vertical still when dw ˆ 0:01 m.
534 A.A. El-Sebaii / Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538

Fig. 9. Variations of daily productivity (Pd) of SSSBS with wind speed (V ) for di€erent values of mw on a summer
day.

In order to correlate the daily productivity Pd of the investigated stills with wind speed V for
di€erent values of mw during the summer and winter, we may write Pd in terms of mw and V
as

Pd ˆ ambw V c …9†

Fig. 10. Variations of daily productivity (Pd) of SSDBS with wind speed (V ) for di€erent values of mwl when mwu
= 25 kg on a winter day.
 A.A. El-Sebaii / Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538 535

where a, b and c are constants to be determined from the numerical results using the method
of least squares. The constant a indicates the dependence of Pd on other parameters, such as
solar intensity, ambient temperature, etc. Eq. (9) may be written as
 
ln Pd ˆ ln ambw ‡ c ln V …10†

When ln Pd is plotted as ordinate and ln V as abscissa for di€erent values of mw, a series of
straight lines will be obtained whose average slope is the constant c. One may write Eq. (10) as
ÿ

ln Pd =V c ˆ ln a ‡ b ln mw …11†

Eq. (11) is a straight line whose slope equals the constant b and its intersection with Y-axis will
be ln a. Figs. 11 and 12 give two examples of the obtained correlations for the VS on a
summer day (Fig. 11) and for the DSSBSMR on a winter day (Fig. 12). From these ®gures,
the constant c was found to be 0.074 and 0.025, respectively, for the VS and DSSBSMR on
typical summer and winter days. These values indicate an increasing Pd as V increases. The
corresponding values of the constant b are obtained as ÿ0.608 and ÿ0.506 indicating a
decreasing Pd with increasing heat capacity of the basin water.
Table 1 summarizes the obtained values of the constants a, b and c and the proposed
correlations for Pd with mw and V on typical summer and winter days. These correlations are
valid for 0 < mw R200 kg and 0RVR30 m/s. For the VS, the investigated range of ¯owing
water thickness dw is 0 < dw R0:05 m. The correlations are obtained by least squares curve
®tting. The accuracy of the ®tting is indicated by the regression coecients (RC ) whose values
are also given in Table 1.

Fig. 11. Proposed correlation for Pd with (A) dw and (B) V for the VS on a summer day.
536 A.A. El-Sebaii / Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538

Fig. 12. Proposed correlation for Pd with (A) mw and (B) V for DSSBSMR on a winter day.

From the results of Table 1, it is seen that the values of RC are higher than 0.96 which
indicates excellent ®tting. For all investigated stills, the obtained values of the constant a
during the summer are higher than those during the winter due to the increased solar radiation
and ambient temperature during the summer and, hence, a higher distillate output. The lower
values of a for the VS are expected because the still covers make angles of 908 with respect to
the horizontal, thus, it receives lower solar radiation compared to the other stills. It is also
clear from Table 1 that the values of c during the summer for the stills under study are higher
than those during the winter, indicating the increasing e€ect of wind on productivity during the
summer. It is found that Pd is directly proportional to V to the power 0.054 and 0.025 for
single basin stills on typical summer and winter days, respectively. For the VS and SSDBS, c

Table 1
Proposed correlations for the investigated solar stills

System Season a b c Pd ˆ ambw V c RC

SSSBS Summer 39.73 ÿ0.446 0.054 Pd ˆ 39:73mÿ0:446

w V 0:054 0.987
Winter 21.38 ÿ0.501 0.025 Pd ˆ 21:38mÿ0:502
w V 0:025 0.969
ÿ0:449 0:054
DSSBS Summer 40.08 ÿ0.449 0.054 Pd ˆ 40:08mw V 0.987
Winter 16.28 ÿ0.496 0.025 Pd ˆ 16:28mÿ0:496
w V 0:025 0.974
DSSBSM R Summer 46.29 ÿ0.430 0.053 Pd ˆ 46:29mÿ0:430
w V 0:053 0.985
Winter 23.57 ÿ0.506 0.025 Pd ˆ 23:57mÿ0:506
w V 0:025 0.967
ÿ0:785 0:064
SSDBS (mwu ˆ 25 kg) Summer 277.27 ÿ0.785 0.064 Pd ˆ 277:27mw V 0.992
Winter 116.97 ÿ0.842 0.031 Pd ˆ 116:97mÿ0:842
w V 0:031 0.971
VS (m_ ˆ 0:005 kg/s) Summer 4.44 ÿ0.608 0.074 Pd ˆ 4:44d ÿ0:608
w V 0:074
0.989
Winter 4.06 ÿ0.756 0.038 Pd ˆ 4:06d ÿ0:756
w V 0:038 0.982
 A.A. El-Sebaii / Energy Conversion & Management 41 (2000) 523±538 537

was found to be 050% higher during the summer compared to its value during the winter.
Moreover, the values of c for the SSDBS and VS (it has two channels with two glass covers)
are greater than those for the single basin stills because the former stills are functioning as
double e€ect stills. The negative sign of the constant b indicates the maximum daily
productivity is obtained at the lowest basin water mass and the rate of still productivity
decreases with increased water mass. This e€ect is more pronounced in winter than in summer
(compare values of b in Table 1 during the summer and winter) due to lower solar radiation.
From the given results of ®ve solar stills, it may be concluded that the productivity of solar
stills can be improved by using a controlled source of wind, like a fan running at Vt during
sunshine hours or by installing solar stills in windy places.

5. Conclusions

On the basis of the obtained results the following conclusions may be drawn:
1. The basin water and glass cover temperatures decrease as V increases due to the increased
rate of heat transfer from the still cover to ambient air.
2. The daily productivity Pd of solar stills increases as V increases until a typical velocity Vt
due to the increased water±glass temperature di€erence more than the fall in both
temperatures.
3. The value of Vt is independent of the still shape and heat capacity of the brine, but it shows
some seasonal dependence. For the investigated stills, Vt was found to be 10 and 8 m/s on
typical summer and winter days, respectively.
4. It is indicated that the wind is more e€ective at higher water masses during summer (see
Table 1).
5. The maximum daily productivity is obtained at the lowest mass of water. This e€ect is more
pronounced in winter than in summer due to lower solar intensity.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Mr. E. El-Bialy for his assistance during measurements of
climatic conditions of the winter day which are employed for the present calculations.

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