Method of research for solar cookers performance characteristics-Analysis and comparison

Abstract

Cooking is one of the most common activity in day-to-day life of every woman. In rural areas the transportation of fuel is major problem and the increasing demand of energy for cooking applications is gaining importance and various investigations are being carried out for performance enhancement of the solar cooker. The box-type solar cooker has a complex thermal analysis due to the transient heat transfer phenomenon involved in three dimensions. A comparison of the standard correlation available are analysed for accuracy of predicted results with experimental data. The investigation involves the experimental determination of the parameters viz. wind heat transfer coefficient, side and bottom loss coefficient, inner and outer glass temperature. The extensive data is analysed with that of standard correlations and the significance of the experimental data is checked. Analysis found to have deviation of 3%-20% in experimental and correlation data, which indicates that for accuracy of performance analysis the studied parameters should be determined experimentally.