Experimental investigation of the thermal performance of a box type solar cooker using a finned cooking vessel

Abstract

The box type solar cooker is a user-friendly solar energy harvesting system suitable for domestic cooking in tropical countries. The benefit of adding aluminum fins to the lids of the cooking vessels in a solar cooker is investigated in this experimental study. Four different cylindrical aluminum cooking vessels that are un-finned and finned vessels with varying fin lengths of 25 mm, 35 mm, and 45 mm are used to heat water—outdoor experiments are conducted for five days each case. For all four configurations, water is observed to attain a peak temperature of 102 °C in a closed system. The maximum temperature range maintained is between 90 °C and 100 °C for about two to 3 h during outdoor testing. The attained thermal efficiency and heat transfer coefficients are 56.03% and 58.54 W/m2°C, respectively, for the 45 mm finned configuration. The boiling point of water is attained in 2 h and 17 min using the cooking vessel with 45 mm fins. The results of the stagnation and sensible heating tests show that the finned cooking vessels have higher thermal performance than the conventional un-finned vessel due to increased heat transfer surface.