An optimal design of a solar cooker under Qassim weather

Abstract

The Middle East, notably Saudi Arabia, faces an increase in the need for energy for cooking as a result of population expansion in both urban and rural areas. Traditional cooking requires a variety of resources, including petroleum, coal, wood for fires, and other biomass-based materials. All of which damage forests and accelerate climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions. As an alternative, Solar energy can be an inventive replacement for conventional energy sources for cooking. In this study, the design optimization, fabrication, and thermal evaluation of a solar cooking system was investigated. The optimal solar cooker design with the best thermal performance was found using the multi-objective colonial competitive method executed under Matlab. The optimal solar cooker design was fabricated and experimentally tested under the Qassim climate. A k-type thermocouples were used to measure the temperature of the inside pot and the absorber plate.  It is noted that the obtained optimal results were in strong correlation with experimental and literature findings. Moreover, it is stated that the initial and second reflectors should be tilted at a position of 120 degrees for the highest solar cooker efficiency per day. It has also been demonstrated that the efficiency of the system is significantly affected by changing the insulator thickness from 0.002 to 0.05 m