Thermal Performance Comparison and Augmentation of Two Identical Box-Type Solar Cookers Operating in Tropical Climatic Conditions

Abstract

In the present study, experimental studies have been performed to compare the thermal performance of two geometrically identical box-type solar (B-T-S) cookers. To carry out this aim, the thermal performance of BTS in terms of figure of merits, namely, first figure of merit (F1) and second figure of merit (F2) are calculated for both cooker as specified by the Bureau of Indian standards (BIS). At no load condition (i.e. stagnation test), it is found that first figure of merit for both cookers that is cooker 1, and cooker 2 is around 0.12. This implies that, both the cookers are identical in thermal performance. In addition to this, the effect of lugs height, reflectors numbers of pots and load on B-T-S cooker performance have also been investigated. From the results and discussion, it is concluded that the use of lugs reduced the heat transfer rate between cooking pot and absorber plate. Further it is found that the pot content temperature is enhanced by 25.5% and 23.4% by using mirror and aluminium reflector with cooker, respectively. While, it is observed that the performance parameters of B-T-S cooker in terms of F2 increases linearly with the increase of numbers of cooking pot (with correlation F2 = 0.0316n + 0.2238, where n is number of pots) and load (correlation as F2 = 0.0451m + 0.1844, where m is the mass of water in cooking pot) on the pot.

Thermal performance assessment of a cylindrical box solar cooker fitted with decahedron outer reflector

“…The battery then powers the solar tracker and DC motor-pump set, circulating heat transfer fluid via heater plate's heating coil. Arif et al 44 conducted comparative study to investigate the effects of changing position of cooking pot on absorber plate, mirror and aluminium reflector, as well as the number of cooking pots on the performance of two geometrically similar SBCs. Their research found that the lugs helped to reduce heat transfer rate between absorber plate and cooking pot.…”