Heating mechanism analysis. General overview.

The main purpose of the solar cooker is to create enough heat so that people will be able
to cook without the need of electricity. As its name stands for, the solar cooker will be able to
convert sun rays into heat energy. For this reason, the solar cooker has a complex yet
understandable and easy to maneuver mechanism.
Generally, it includes the following steps:
1. A specific type of lens concentrates the sun beams into a line called the focal line.
2. The focal line is focused on the heating plate at a certain position, that will be prebuilt
into the heating plate.
3. The sun rays converted into heat flux will be dissipated throughout the plate and will
increase the plates temperature, allowing people to use the plate for cooking.
Throughout the whole process we will have considerable losses. Thus, it is paramount
that we calculate the efficiency of the whole system as accurate as possible. However, the
behavior of the sun rays is a very intricate branch of the modern physics, that even today is not
fully comprehensible. Moreover, some of these topics have not been yet covered in the
curriculum of the first three semester, consequently, we have done research and used already
known values for some of the efficiencies.
For a better visualization of our systems functionality, we have created a scheme, that
describes the path of the sun rays until they finally hit the plates surface and heat it. The
following scheme also highlights the points where by common sense we can determine whether
it is reliable to calculate the heat losses.
The Fresnel Lens.
The most important component of our product is the Fresnel Lens, consequently it is a
top priority to find the lens which fit our criteria. We looked for different manufacturers, but
most of them provide lenses that are not suitable for any thermal application. As a result, we
stopped looking for others when we found Nikon Tokushu Kogaku Jushi.
The most critical parameter of the Fresnel lenses is their area. As the area of the Fresnel
lens directly affects the heat flux value, we strived to select the biggest lenses in the catalogue.
However, the size which fits us was not available, so that instead of asking for suitable
dimensions the manufacturer advised us to buy as many lenses as need and simply connect them
according to their regulations.

Liner Fresnel Lens. Fig. ** Fresnel Lens Selection. Fig **

As seen from the Figure **, the selected product is LF500-B, with a size of 1000x500mm, which
gives us a total Area of 0.5 m2, for capturing the sun rays. Note that we agreed to connect in a
row two Fresnel Lenses of this type.
The efficiency of the lenses depends on the material and the detail accuracy they are
made. The following manufacturer does not provide data about the efficiencies, yet we were able
to find another manufacturer and calculate the transmission efficiency according to the new
catalogue. The main reason we did that is because the following catalogue included efficiencies
for different type of materials, as well as the one we decided to use for our product. Nonetheless,
the result is comparable with other already known efficiencies for Fresnel Lens, which made us
believe that it does not make a huge difference from the real results.
The following graphs describe the efficiency depending on the type of material and the
incident rays wavelength and the efficiency depending on the incident angle.

Efficiency. Angle of incidence. Fig ** Efficiency. Material and wavelength. Fig **

From the Fig ** we calculated the overall efficiency of the lenses, depending on the
wavelength of the incident rays. We divided the wavelengths of the sunrays, and found out that
55% of the sunrays have a wavelength of more than 700 nm (infrared rays), 42% have a
wavelength between 380 and 700 nm (visible light rays) and the rest 3% have a wavelength of
less than 350nm (ultraviolet rays). Moreover, the biggest angle of incidence will reflect not more
than 5% of the total incident rays. As a result, the overall efficiency of the lenses becomes
87.609%, which means that only this specific amount of sunbeams will concentrate onto the
focal line.
The actual size of the Focal Line can be easily calculated by using the manual given by
the manufacturer. The size of the pitch is 0.3mm and the focal line length is 1m. Therefore, the
Area of the Focal line becomes 300mm2 or 0.00003m2.
The Sun irradiance depending on the month of use.
Another paramount parameter for our projects success is the irradiation of the sun. As
our main purpose is to focus on countries that have a high need of cooking systems independent
from electricity, because of its inaccessibility, and are also close to the equator, we selected three
main areas of our interest and gathered data from these locations. These countries are Haiti,
Kenya and Palestine and each of them have a specific sun movement pattern and irradiation
throughout the year.
The following tables describes the amount of radiation per year and includes the losses
depending on the angle of inclination we choose for our heating plate.

Converting sun irradiance into heat flux. Losses and material specifications.
Material specifications are vital at this point, thus we created a list of specified
requirements for it to fulfill.
1. The material needs to have a high heat conductivity
2. The material is required to have a high emissivity coefficient.
3. The material has to be machinable.
4. The material shall be covered with a black paint in order to decrease its reflecting capability.
Out of the given criteria we found that Copper and copper abundant alloys surpass almost
any other material in most of the requirements and therefore it is flawlessly suitable for our
application.
It is important to consider that the heating element is not a perfect black body thus
meaning that a specific amount of sunrays will not convert into heat and will be reflected into the
environment. Moreover, the environment itself serves as a cooler for the heating plate, therefore
Heat dissipation analysis. Heating plate design.
In order to choose the best model for the heating plate we made several simulations for
different designs and analyzed the how the heat spreads throughout the whole volume of the
plate. It was clear from the beginning that the plate has to be narrow and should not contain
sharp edges. There assumptions were based on simulation results, instead of calculated values.
From the simulation it was clear that sharp edges tend to concentrate the heat instead of
spreading and also a thick plate takes more time to conduct the heat to its margins.
It is also important to consider the direction and magnitude of the blowing wind. For this
reason, we ran simulations in Autodesk and approximated the heat losses in these given
conditions.
We settled two different scenarios for the plates to perform. One of them is excluding the
wind influence, while the other one includes the wind with its magnitude, direction and
consequently its effect on the heat dissipation.
We concluded that the

Heat isolation system. Safety regulations.

The results show that a high temperature would be reached in a very short time, meaning
that it, undoubtedly, creates an extremely dangerous environment for people that will have to
work with the solar cooker. Thus, we created an isolation system for the heat to first, protect
people from burns and other risks after heat exposure, and second increase the efficiency of our
system.
The solar cooker will also include instruction and safety rules that have to be followed.
Conclusion.