Cooking Through Solar Oven

Abstract

A unique and different design of double glazed solar oven with flat external reflectors at the top and front and an internal reflector at beneath the L-shaped absorber plate is numerically and parametrically studied. The maximum temperature attained by the internal absorber cavity of oven is within the range of 100-120oC. Overall energy balance on the absorber plate of proposed solar oven is solved by incorporating the effects of top, front and bottom reflectors. CFD simulations are used for the prediction of unknown buoyancy driven convective heat transfer co-efficient from the L-shaped absorber plate to the surrounding glass cover forming and enclosure. Experimental results are found to be in good agreement with the modeling results which leads to parametric study of solar oven. The effect of different components and various design parameters on the oven’s performance such as no. of glazing, spacing between glazing, thickness of glazing, influence of vertical and horizontal component of absorber plate, top, front and internal reflectors, and effect of absorber plate coatings are also discussed.