AIMS Energy, 2018, 6(1): 146-169. doi: 10.3934/energy.2018.1.146

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Design, construction and performance evaluation of aBox type solar cooker with a glazing wiper mechanism

Zeleke Ademe, Sameer Hameer

Bahir Dar Energy Research Center, Bahir Dar Institute of Technology, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

Received: , Accepted: , Published:

Topical Section: Solar Energy

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This research work describes the performance evaluation of a double-glazed box-type solar oven with three reflectors and with a vapor wiper mechanism fabricated using locally available materials. The box cooker has external box dimensions of 600 mm × 600 mm × 250 mm and pyramidal internal box dimensions of 460 mm × 460 mm top face and 300 mm × 300 mm bottom face with depth of 150 mm. The thermal performance was tested as per the ASAE International Test procedure and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for testing the thermal performance of a box-type solar cooker. The obtained test results after employing required calculations were figures of merit F1 = 0.123 Km2/W, F2 = 0.540, the standard cooking power P50 = 36 W and the cumulative efficiency to be 22%, whereas with the application of the wiper mechanism, it was found that F1 = 0.123, F2 = 0.827, the standard cooking power (P50) = 51 W, and the cumulative efficiency to be 31.4%. The standard boiling time of 1.43 kg of water was calculated to be 53.54 and 88.84 minutes for the cooker with and without the application of wiper mechanism respectively. The thermal distribution of the cooker was modeled using interior box geometry as a boundary condition with ANSYS 15.0. The temperature distribution inside the box was simulated and the maximum wall temperature was found to be 139 ℃. This was lower than the experimental results by 22 ℃. The method of modeling and simulation of the cooker with and without a wiper mechanism is similar except for the variation of the transmittance of the glass due to shading of vapor which can be deducted from the cumulative efficiency for the latter case. The results show that using the vapor wiper mechanism increases the cumulative efficiency by 9.4% and reduces the boiling time by 35.3 minutes. Finally, the techno-economic analysis shows that the cooker with a vapor wiper mechanism has a good reliability for outdoor cooking of food and is economically feasible.
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