Numerical Investigation on the Effect of Various Geometries in a Solar Box-Type Cooker: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The solar energy as a renewable energy has been the primary interest of many researchers for the last four to five decades due to its wide applications such as domestic cooking systems. The present study aims to investigate the effect of various box geometries such as rectangular, trapezoidal, cylindrical and frustum of a cone on the performance of solar cookers. In this study, various heat losses (convective and radiative) from the cooker cavities are analysed by simulating the condition using commercial software ANSYS16. The results of numerical analysis of rectangular cavity box-type cooker are validated by comparing with experimental results. The results show that trapezoidal cavity box-type solar cooker has higher absorber plate temperature and minimum heat losses than all other geometries operating under the same conditions. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.