Experimental Investigation Of Pcm Integrated Indirect Solar Cooker

Abstract

Cooking Is One Of The Most Essential Human Activity In Everyday Life. The Energy Demand For Cooking Is Fulfilled By Conventional Energy Sources Like Bio-Fuels, Fossil Fuels And Electricity. Environmental Degradation, Harmful Gas Emissions, And The Increase In Prices Of Fuel And Electricity Are The Main Driving Forces Behind The Need For More Effective Utilization Of Renewable Energy. Among The Alternative Energy Sources, Solar Energy Is A Clean, Abundant And Easily Accessible Form Of Renewable Energy. However, Its Intermittent And Dynamic Nature Makes It Difficult To Utilize It Effectively. The Thermal Energy Storage (Tes) System Becomes A Solution To Those Natures And The Time-Mismatch Between Energy Demand And Supply. The Major Objective Of This Thesis Is To Design And Experimentally Investigate The Performance Of Locally Constructed Indirect Solar Cooking System Using A Modified Flat Plate Collector As A Heat Source Integrated With A Phase Change Material (Pcm) Based Latent Heat Storage (Lhs) System. Numerical Simulation And Experimental Investigation Are Done To Study The Performance Of Individual System Components. Good Agreement Was Obtained Between The Numerical And Experimental Results. From The Analytical Result And Estimation Of Solar Radiation Data, Daily Average Enhancement Of 42.3% On The Reflected Solar Radiation Is Found Using Four Reflectors On Each Side Of The Fpc. Comparative Study On The Performance Of Fpc With And Without Reflector Are Conducted Using No-Load Experimental Test. The Result Showed That The Maximum Average Absorber Plate Temperature, Maximum Outlet Water Temperature, Maximum Energy And Exergy Efficiency Of Fpc Without And With Reflectors Are Found To Be 364k, 344.1k, 63%, And 42% And 398.25k, 376.65k, 79%, And 48% Respectively. The Experimental Result Of Lhs Using Stearic Acid Showed That Time It Takes And Amount Of Sensible, Latent And Total Energy Stored/Released During Charging/Discharging Processes Are Found To Be 141min, 1.89mj, 3.52mj And 5.41mj And 153min, 1.57mj, 3.01mj And 4.58mj Respectively. The Result Of No-Load Test Showed That Maximum Temperature Of 372.9k And 369.1k Is Achieved At 13:00pm In The Storage Vessel And Cooking Pot Surface Respectively. After No-Load Test Established The Cooking Ability Of The Cooker, Water Boiling Test And Different Actual Load Test Are Performed. The Performance Test Revealed That The Maximum Amount Of First Figure Of Merits (F1) Obtained Was 0.09k????2/W And 0.21k????2/W For The Cooker With And Without Reflector On Fpc Respectively. Second Figure Of Merits(F2) For The Cooker With Reflector On The Fpc Was Evaluated From Water Boiling Test And Found To Be 0.28. The Sensible And Latent Efficiency Of The Cooker Were 29.6% And 27.3 % Respectively. Finally, Economic Analysis Was Performed And The Pay-Back Period Of The Cooker Was Found To Be 3.5years.