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Design, Construction and Experiment on Solar cooker with automatic sun

tracking system

Conference Paper · November 2011

DOI: 10.13140/2.1.2509.3440

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World Renewable Energy Congress 2011 – Sweden Solar Thermal Applications (STH)
8-11 May 2011, Linköping, Sweden

Design, Construction and Experiment on Solar cooker with automatic sun

tracking system
A. Kaabi-Nejadian1,*, M. Nouri2, M.A Moradian2, M. Mashhoodi2, P. Kavehzadeh2,

B. Bagher2
1
Renewable Energy Organization of Iran, Ministry Of Energy, Tehran, Iran
2
Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University,
Tehran, Iran
* Corresponding author. Tel: +98 21 88091539, Fax: +98 21 88091539, E-mail: Kaabi@Iranenergy.org.ir

Abstract: Fossil fuels are today’s most accessible sources of energy. However due to their limited resources and
greenhouse gas emission, the use of renewable energy sources is being reconsidered. Taking into account the
limitations of renewable energy sources, such as low efficiency and high production cost, specialist and
researchers around the world are constructing and experimenting on more efficient and less expensive
equipments. One of the most common renewable energy sources that have been studied for years is solar energy.

One of the methods to reduce household energy consumption is to use solar cookers. It can be most useful for
cooking and baking in villages of sunny developing countries. Low efficiency and daylight-only functionality are
some of the limitations of solar cookers. Using a solar tracker will increase efficiency, especially at the early
mornings and late afternoons. In this paper, the principles of design and construction of a new and efficient solar
cooker have been presented and the test results have been described.

Keywords: Solar energy, Solar Cooker, Sun tracker

Nomenclature
Iscsolar constant ..................................... W/m2
Io extraterrestrial irradiation.. ............... W/m2
r sun-earth distance.................................. AU
IT total solar radiation ............................ W/m2
ID direct radiation ................................... W/m2
IDNdirect normal radiation………...……. W/m2
p distance between sinker and axis of
symmetry .................................................. m
L solar cooker’s width ................................ m
T temperature............................................... c
a focal length .............................................. m
 hour angle ........................................ degree
λ slop angle......................................... degree
k spring constant .....................................N/m
C damping coefficient............................ N.s/m
dn day number…………………………….-------
q distance between damper, springs and
cooker’s axis of symmetry ........................ m
M cooker’s mass .......................................... kg
Mw water’s mass ............................................ kg
Mfc food container’s mass.............................. kg
m sinker’s mass ........................................... kg
Psc power generated by cooker ..................... W
I momentum of inertia...........................kgm2
 required angle ....................................... rad
c specific heat .................................. kj/(K.kg)
t time ............................................................ s
α solar altitude .................................... degree
 declination angle .............................. degree

1. Introduction
Developing countries are faced with the problem of fossil fuel shortage, due to a large amount
of consumption in these countries. To solve this problem, the use of renewable energy with
long term objectives is advised. In some of these countries, the energy used for domestic
purposes such as cooking, is mostly provided by elementary means like wood. For instance in
World Renewable Energy Congress 2011 – Sweden Solar Thermal Applications (STH)
8-11 May 2011, Linköping, Sweden

Sahel and Sudan the consumption of firewood exceeds the growth rate of the forests. These
regions lose about 5% of their forests every year [1].
Using wood for cooking increases the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to CO2 generated
by burning lumber and fewer number of trees consuming it. Considering the large number of
developing countries in the world, and the amount of wood consumed in the villages for
cooking, this phenomenon, in long term can have a negative impact on the environment. One
way to solve this problem is to expand the use of solar cookers in these areas. Doing so can
prevent more trees from being cut for cooking purposes, and therefore, can reduce the amount
of CO2 emissions.

Despite many advantages, there are some drawbacks and practical inconveniences for
widespread use of solar cookers in these areas. The most important problem is that, cooking
time is increased when a solar cooker is used. One of the reasons of this problem is that sun
changes its position with angular velocity of fifteen degrees per hour. This leads to a dramatic
change in solar cookers’ efficiency due to change in focus, which leads to energy loss [2]. In
this study, to solve this problem, a solar tracker is used. The tracker, changes the solar
cooker’s position with respect to sun’s position, so that cooker is always facing the sun and
working at maximums efficiency. The solar cooker constructed in this research, consists of
five parts: Radial Reflector Plate, Body and Legs, Solar Tracker, Electric engine and a
Photovoltaic panel. In this research, a solar cooker with a sun tracking system is constructed,
several tests are conducted and the results are illustrated.

2. Methodology
After constructing legs and reflector plate, a primary test was conducted to evaluate the
cooker’s efficiency. Results showed that reflector plate was not accurate enough. Therefore,
cooker was deconstructed and more legs were added to increase the reflector plate’s accuracy.
Solar cooker was tested in mid November, with maximum wind speed of 4m/s. Two methods
were used for testing the solar cooker: three experiments were conducted from 10th to 12th of
November with solar tracker and another three tests were carried out from 13th to 15th of
November without any tracking system. Because of time limitation solar cooker was not
tested with manual tracker. The use of manual tracker will be tested in the future paper. The
main reason for using two different methods of testing was to demonstrate the impact that an
automated solar tracker can have on the efficiency of the device. In both tests, 0.5 kg of water
was heated to reach the temperature of 90 degrees Celsius. When testing solar cooker with
solar tracker, solar cooker was placed with specific angle to have maximum efficiency at
around 11:49 pm (local solar noon), every five minutes, the food container was manually
replaced with another one containing 0.5kg of cold water. The reason for changing the food
container completely instead of just changing the water was that food container’s temperature
must be same as water’s temperature at the beginning of each test. Finally, cooking power
was plotted against time.

2.1. Body Design

Solar cooker’s reflector is a parabolic plate defined as Y=X2 /4a in which focus coordinate is
F (0, a) and “a” is 1m. A large radial reflector plate is one of the advantageous of this solar
cooker, because it can reflect more solar rays, and therefore generates a higher focus
temperature. Legs were designed by AutoCAD and Parabolic Calculator, while the reflector
World Renewable Energy Congress 2011 – Sweden Solar Thermal Applications (STH)
8-11 May 2011, Linköping, Sweden

plate was designed using Autodesk Inventor. Legs and reflector plate were assembled in
Autodesk Inventor (fig.1). Body and legs were built using Medium Density Fiberboard and
for accuracy, they were cut using Computer Numerical Control. Reflector plate was made out
of silver Polyvinyl Chloride with reflection coefficient of 90%.

Fig.1. solar plate and legs assembled in Autodesk Inventor

2.2 Study of drag force caused by wind

The main reason for using Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis is to determine the drag
force caused by the wind that acts on solar cooker. Solar cooker’s legs and plate were
modeled and meshed in Gambit, then exported to Fluent for analysis. Due to low velocity, air
flow was assumed to be laminar and problem was solved with the 3 dimension, double
precision version. Results show that in normal conditions with wind velocity of 4m/s a small
force of 4.14N acts on solar cooker. Figure 2 shows the skin friction coefficient. It can be
concluded that due to cooker’s shape, skin friction has a little impact on the total drag force,
acting on the cooker.
World Renewable Energy Congress 2011 – Sweden Solar Thermal Applications (STH)
8-11 May 2011, Linköping, Sweden

Fig.2 skin friction coefficient for reflector plate

2.3 Estimation of Solar Radiation:

To receive maximum solar radiation, collector’s surface should be perpendicular to solar rays.
Therefore sun’s position should be defined on collector-center coordinate. Usually sun’s
position is determined in earth-center frame as discussed in reference [9], here; the position
vector for sun is defined according to equation (1), which explained in reference [4].

cos  cos  
S    cos  sin   (1)
sin  

For determining sun’s position in collector-center coordinate, coordinate transformation

matrices for earth-center to earth-surface are used, and then sun’s position vector is
transferred to collector-center coordinate, which is used for determining solar cooker’s
position.
Solar cooker’s reflector plate is angled based on the geographical latitude and tracking is done
around an axis which is parallel to earth’s polar axis (from east to west). In this case for θ=π/2
solar cooker will constantly track the sun with angle = [4].
Solar intensity out of the atmosphere, "Io" can be calculated from the following equation:

Io = Isc / r 2 = Isc{1+ 0.033cos(2dn/365)} (2)

Where "r" is the distance between earth and sun and "Isc" is solar constant radiation.
World Renewable Energy Congress 2011 – Sweden Solar Thermal Applications (STH)
8-11 May 2011, Linköping, Sweden

Total radiation "IT" is obtained from:

IT = ID + Id (3)

Where "ID" is direct normal radiation, which is calculated by equation (4):

I D = I DN sin (4)

Where "IDN" is direct normal radiation, which is normal to the collector surface and is
calculated by (5):

I DN = I O P (1/sin  ) (5)

And diffuse radiation "Id” is defined by the following equation:

1  P (1/ sin )
I d  O.5I O sin  (7)
1  1.4 ln P

Finally by using "Id" and "ID" solar radiation received by the collector "IT" can be calculated
from equation (3) on a horizontal surface.

2.4 Solar tracker design

There are three kinds of solar trackers: Passive, Microprocessor Controller and Electro-optic.
Passive systems track sun without any electronic, optic or control devices. In these systems
tracker reacts based on the radiation it receives, and provides the required torque accordingly.
Microprocessor Controller has no optic devices and tracks the sun based on mathematical
calculations that provide the sun’s position. In Electro-optic tracking systems, tracker finds
the sun’s position using photo sensors and changes the device’s orientation based on sun’s
position [5].
In this cooker two light dependent resistors are placed on each side of the solar cooker (one
on the east side and other on the west side). Half of each sensor is protected from direct sun
light with a half cylinder. If solar radiation is perpendicular to the plate, both sensors are in
shadow, and if solar radiation is not perpendicular to the reflector plate, one sensor receives
more solar radiation than the other, therefore sensors create different voltages. Both sensors
are connected to a Microcontroller. Microcontroller is programmed to calculate the voltage
difference between its two legs. The voltage sent to the motor is a function of this difference
in voltage. To move the cooker, the simplest and most conventional technique is to directly
apply the torque created by the motor to the device, but because of the solar cooker and its
food container’s weight this solution requires a strong and expensive motor that consumes a
World Renewable Energy Congress 2011 – Sweden Solar Thermal Applications (STH)
8-11 May 2011, Linköping, Sweden

lot of power. Therefore an expensive Photovoltaic panel is needed to supply the required
power to the DC (direct circulate) stepper motor. This will increase the cost of building a
solar cooker with tracker. Instead of using a motor to directly move the cooker, in this paper,
a new method was used to move the cooker. The basic concept of this method is to disturb the
balance of the system using a small torque which is related to desired angle. Fig.3 shows the
sketch of the device.

Fig3. Top: sketch of the whole cooker. Bottom: forces acting on the cooker

Solar cookers axis of symmetry is placed on a shaft which can rotate around its center. A DC
stepper motor is used to move a 5kg sinker, which is used to disturb the balance of the system
while springs and dampers react to this disturbance by creating an opposite torque. When the
solar radiation is perpendicular to the plate, motor stops the sinker at distance P from the axis
of symmetry of the system and springs and dampers create the torque required to stop the
cooker.
The governing equation of motion for the device is as follows:

mgp cos( )  [2q 2 cos( )(k sin(  )  C cos( )]  M fc ga sin(  )  I (10)

At the equilibrium position, the angle of reflector can be obtained from:

mpg cos( )  M fc ga sin(  )  2q 2 k sin(  ) cos( ) (11)

World Renewable Energy Congress 2011 – Sweden Solar Thermal Applications (STH)
8-11 May 2011, Linköping, Sweden

Equation (10) was solved using MATLAB while values of “C” and “k” were found by trial
and error. According to equation (10), for “k” and “c” values of 100N/m and 144.76N.s/m,
system shows a good time response. Equation (11) shows the relation between desired angle
and position “p” when system is in balance.

2.5 Results
Fig.4 which was plotted using interpolation in MATLAB shows the power versus time for
both, solar cooker with and without automatic solar tracker. These tests were conducted
according to international standards [3].

Fig.4 power produced by solar cooker versus time

Power was calculated from equation (12)

Psc = (Mw cT)/t (12)

Where Mw is water’s mass, c is water’s specific heat, ΔT is water’s temperature difference

obtained according to reference [3] and Δt is time interval which is five minutes. Results
show that an automated solar tracker that can continuously change the cooker’s position has a
noticeably high impact on the power output of the solar cooker.

3. Conclusion
The results show that solar tracker can have a great impact on cooker’s efficiency by reducing
energy loss. It should be mentioned that the power that is transmitted to water is highly
sensitive to the wind speed. According to [6] Nusselt number is a function of Reynolds
number, therefore an increase in wind speed results in an increase of Reynolds number, which
 World Renewable Energy Congress 2011 – Sweden Solar Thermal Applications (STH)
8-11 May 2011, Linköping, Sweden

increases the Nusselt number and convection heat transfer coefficient. Subodh Kumar has
conducted and experiment on determining the heat loss for parabolic solar cookers [7]. The
tracker system used for this solar cooker is designed to minimize the effect of torques exerted
on the system by cooker and food container. This unique design enables the device to use its
own weight to adjust its position, therefore, a small motor and Photovoltaic panel can be used.
By using the mentioned technique, construction costs can be reduced. Solar cookers have
little maintenance and running cost due to the usage of solar energy for cooking, and therefore
they can be used in remote villages in developing countries, regardless of their economic
condition. By using this simple yet effective solar tracker, this device has the capacity to be
used commercially in the near future.

References
[1] K. Schwarzer, M. Eugeˆnia Vieira da Silva, Characterisation and design methods of solar
cookers, Journal of Solar Energy 82, 2008, pp.157–163.
[2] N. Kumar, S. Agravat, T. Chavda, H.N. Mistry, Design and development of efficient
multipurpose domestic solar cookers/dryers, Journal of Renewable Energy 33, 2008, pp.
2207–2211.
[3] P.A. Funk, Evaluating the international standard procedure for testing solar cookers and
reporting performance, Journal of Solar Energy 68, 2000, pp. 1-7.
[4] K.K. Chong, C.W. Wong, General formula for on-axis sun-tracking system and its
application in improving tracking accuracy of solar collector, Journal of Solar Energy 83,
2009, 298–305.
[5] H. Arbab, B. Jazi, M. Rezagholizadeh, A computer tracking system of solar dish with two-
axis degree freedomsbased on picture processing of bar shadow, Journal of Renewable
Energy 34, 2009,pp. 1114–1118.
[6] Yunus A. Cengel, Heat Transfer: A Practical Approach,McGraw-Hill,2nd Edition,2002,pp.
370-371.
[7] S. Kumar, T.C. Kandpal, S.C.Mullick, Heat losses from a paraboloid concentrator solar
cooker: Experimental investigation on effect of reflector orientation, Journal of Renewable
Energy 3,pp. 871-876.
[8] A.KAABI-NEJADIAN: Solar cooker, Iranian solar energy society, Tehran (2007).
[9] M. IQBAL: An introduction to solar radiation, ACADEMIC PRESS, Canada (1983).

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