THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF A PROTOTYPE QUONSET-SHAPED SOLAR COOKER

Tawfik, M. A.

doi:10.21608/mjae.2018.96203

THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF A PROTOTYPE QUONSET-SHAPED SOLAR COOKER

Document Type : Original Article

Author

M. A. Tawfik

Ass. Professor, Agric. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Agric., Zagazig Univ., Egypt.

10.21608/mjae.2018.96203

Abstract

The aim of this work is studied the thermal performance of a local made prototype Quonset-shaped solar cooker provided with an transparent fiberglass sheets under the local climatic conditions of Zagazig city, Egypt (Lat. 30° 35^\ N ; Lon. 31° 31^\ E). The Quonset geometric shape of the cooker cover was chosen to obtain a large enclosure volume to increase the accumulated solar heat inside the cooking compartment. The cooker was divided into two equal compartments with aperture area 0.12 m² and provided with internal solar reflective films. The Thermal performance of cooker was evaluated using the conventional absorber plate (CAP) and black stones pebbles bed (BSB) with different water loads and under the passive and active (the integration of the cooker with a solar flat-plate collector and PV system (modes with taking into consideration the first figure of merit, utilizable efficiency, specific and characteristic boiling times. The results revealed that, the solar cooker with CAP achieved stagnation temperature of about 10% more than the BSB cooker with delay 40 min and first figure of merit of 0.12 °C.m²/W, whereas the CAP was 0.11°C.m²/W. The active solar cooker with CAP achieved the highest utilizable efficiency of 36.6% with an increment by about 26.5% than the passive one at the maximum water load of 1.50 kg, while the utilizable efficiency of the solar cooker with BSB was 22.52 and 26.9% for the passive and active modes, respectively. Hence, It is recommended to use the active solar cooker with CAP to achieve a good thermal performance because this cooker with aperture area of 1 m² can boil 1 kg of water in about 18 min at utilizable efficiency of 25% which reduced the boiling time by about 21.74%, whereas the passive cooker with BSB is useful when the evening cooking is concerned and it is not recommended to use this cooker in active mode

Keywords

Main Subjects

Biosystems Engineering

References

Akhtar, N., S.C. Mullick (1999).Approximate method for computation of glass cover temperature and top heat-loss coefficient of solar collectors with single glazing. Sol. Energy, 66(5):349–354.

Buddhi, D., S. D. Sharma and A. Sharma (2003). Thermal performance evaluation of a latent heat storage unit for late evening cooking in a solar cooker having three reflectors. Energy Convs. and Manag., 44(6): 809-817.

Cuce, E. and P. M. Cuce (2013). A comprehensive review on solar cookers. Applied Energy. 102 : 1399–1421.

Cuce, E., and P.M. Cuce (2015). Theoretical investigation of hot box solar cookers having conventional and finned absorber plates. Int. J. of Low-Carbon Technol., 10(3), 238-245.

Dudko, K. (2004). Izolacje transparentne w systemie pasywnego ogrzewania słonecznego. Izolacje, 9(1):28-33.(In Polish)

Funk, P.A. (2000). Evaluating the international standard procedure for testing solar cookers and reporting performance. Sol. Energy, 68(1): 1–7.

Funk, P.A. and D.L. Larson (1998).Parametric model of solar cooker performance. Sol. Energy, 62(1): 63-68.

Hanan, M.S.E. (2016).Thermal performance of an experimental car-tire solar cooker. Misr J. Ag. Eng., 33 (1): 63 – 74.

Harmim, A., M. Boukar, M. Amar (2008a). Développement et expérimentation d’un cuiseur solaire à double exposition. Revue des Energies Renouvelables, 11(3):371–377.

Harmim, A., M. Boukar, M. Amar (2008b). Experimental study of a double exposure solar cooker with finned cooking vessel. Sol. Energy, 82(4): 287-289.

Harmim, A., M. Belhamel, M. Boukar and Amar M.(2010). Experimental investigation of a box-type solar cooker with a finned absorber plate. Energy, 35:3799–3802.

Hussein, H.M.S., H.H. El-Ghetany and S.A. Nada (2008). Experimental investigation of novel indirect solar cooker with indoor PCM thermal storage and cooking unit. Energy Convs. Manag.,49:2237–2246.

Kalogirou, S. (2003). The potential of solar industrial process heat applications. Appl. Energy, 76:337–61.

Kalogirou, S.A. (2004). Solar thermal collectors and applications. Prog. Energy Combust. Sci., 30:231–295.

Kaushika, N.D. and K. Sumathy (2003). Solar transparent insulation materials: a review, Renew. and Sust. Energy Rev., 7:317-351.

Kerdchang, P. and W. Puangsombut (2008). Conical solar cooker. 6th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Pretoria, South Africa.

Khalifa, A.M.A., M.M.A. Taha and M. Akyurt (1985). Solar cookers for outdoor and indoors. Energy,10(7):819–829.

Kisilewicz, T. (2007). Computer simulation in solar architecture design. Architec. Eng. and Design Manag., 3(2): 106-123

Lewandowski, W.M. and W. Lewandowska-Iwaniak (2014). The external walls of a passive building: A classification and description of their thermal and optical properties, Energy and Buildings, 69: 93-102.

Mirdha, U.S. and S.R. Dhariwal (2008). Design optimization of solar cooker. Renew. Energy, 33:530–544.

Mullick, S. C.; T.C. Kandpal, and S. Kumar (1996) Testing of box-type solar cooker: second figure of merit F2 and its variation with load and number of pots. Sol. Energy, 57(5): 409– 413.

Mullick, S.C.; T.C. Kandpal and A.K. Saxena (1987) Thermal test procedure for box-type solar cookers. Sol. Energy, 39(4):353–60.

Muthusivagami, R.M., R. Velraj and R. Sethumadhavan (2010). Solar cookers with and without thermal storage: a review. Renew. Sust .Energy Rev., 14:691–701.

Nahar, N. M. (2001). Design, development and testing of a double reflector hot box solar cooker with a transparent insulation material. Renew. Energy, 23(2): 167-179.

Narasimha Rao, A.V. and S. Subramanyam (2005) Solar cookers – part II: cooking vessel with central annular cavity. Sol. Energy, 78:19–22.

Terres, H., A. Lizardi, R. López, M. Vaca and S. Chávez (2014). Mathematical Model to Study Solar Cookers Box-Type with Internal Reflectors. Energy Procedia, 57: 1583-1592.

Valmiki, M. M., P. Li, J. Heyer, M. Morgan, A. Albinali, K. Alhamidi and J. Wagoner (2011). A novel application of a Fresnel lens for a solar stove and solar heating. Renew. Energy, 36(5): 1614-1620.

Wentzel M. and A. Pouris (2007). The development impact of solar cookers: a review of solar cooking impact research in South Africa. Energy Policy, 35: 1909–1919.

Zulovich, J. M. (1993). Active Solar Collectors for Farm Buildings. Extension publication, Missouri University, USA.