IPASJ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering (IIJME)

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Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2015

THERMAL EVALUATION OF THE

CONCENTRATED SOLAR COOKERS BY
USING SELECTIVE SURFACE COATINGS
1

Chaitanya D. Nagmal , 2S. M. Margutti

Department of Mechanical (Energy) Engineering,

Vidya Pratishthans College of Engineering, Baramati 413 133, University of Pune, Maharashtra, India.
2

Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical (Energy) Engineering,
Vidya Pratishthans College of Engineering, Baramati 413 133, University of Pune, Maharashtra, India.

ABSTRACT
Day by day demand of the energy increasing in all over the world. Everybody demand clean and safe energy devices with cost
effective. Therefore there is a need to think out towards renewable energy resources, option to the fossil fuels. One of the most
essential energy needs for human living is for cooking. In India mostly rural sector uses Biogas, Kerosene, and LPG for
cooking. According to the World Health Organization comparative risk study, exposure to smoke from household use of solid
fuels is responsible for the premature deaths of approximate 400000 women and in India every year, 28 present of all deaths
caused by indoor air pollution (IAP) in developing countries [1]. Currently, solar energy is meeting the vital energy
requirement for the large percentage of the worlds population particularly in developing countries. Therefore solar energy
used for the cooking purpose. In this research, designed a Concentrated Parboiled Solar Dish and used Selective Surface
Coatings Black Nickel, Black Chrome which is deposited on the absorber. Thermal Performance Evaluation was carried out
between Coated and non-coated cookers, also calculated Cooking Power and Standard Cooking Power.

Keywords: Solar Collector, Black Nickel Electroplating, Black Chrome Electroplating.

1. INTRODUCTION
Solar energy is one of the most promising renewable energy resources which are available in most of the developing
countries including India. Cooking in a rural area mainly depends upon conventional energy sources such as cow dung,
straw, wood, coal and hence, solar cooking can play an important role in rural areas for cooking. Solar cookers are the
most promising devices since firewood used for coking causes deforestation while commercial fuels such as LPG and
electricity are not available besides cooking accounts for a major share of energy consumption in developing countries
[2]. Solar cookers are rather important applications in thermal solar energy conversion. The use of solar cooker for
cooking purposes is spreading widely in most of the developing countries and in particular in villages and remote areas.
The solar cooker must be high quality, affordable, user friendly, light weight, stackable and a family size [3] Even with
the advent of technologies in this area, peoples are still dependent on the traditional methods of the cooking. These
traditional methods are not only inefficient but also cause indoor pollution. In India, a large number of rural households
are still dependent on bio-fuels for cooking purpose. According to 2001 census, about 82% of rural Indian population
rely primarily on unprocessed solid fuels- firewood, cow dung and crop residue [4].
Table1. Cooking Energy Scenario in India [6]

No

Cooking Energy Scenario in India

Urban Sector
Rural Sector

LPG (47.96%)

Firewood (64.10%)

Firewood (22.74%)

Kerosene (19.16%)

Other sources of biomass-crop residue

(13.10%)
Cow-Dung (12.80%)

Other Fuels (10.14%)

Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2015

LPG (5.67%) is now Increasing in

importance

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Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2015

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The economic feasibility of solar energy utilization depends largely upon efficient collection, conversion and storage of
solar radiation. An efficient solar absorbing surface is defined as having a high absorbance over the solar spectrum and
low Emittance for long wave radiations to reduce the thermal radioactive heat losses [9]
A selective absorber surface, for successful operational use in solar thermal systems, must possess; high solar
absorbance (absorptivity> 0.90), low thermal Emittance (emissivity <0.20), large angle of acceptance, long-term
stability at desired operating temperatures and environmental conditions,
Several methods are used for preparation of selective coating are: electro-plating, chemical vapour deposition (CVD),
vacuum evaporation, sputtering, and anodization [10]
All techniques have some advantages and limitation also. In this method Electroplating has established itself as a
powerful method because of its success with black nickel and black chrome coatings. This method is useful to obtain
large area coatings with uniform characteristics [11]

2. Principle of Solar Cooking

Most solar cookers convert sunlight to heat energy that is utilized for cooking. The ability of a solar cooker to collect
sunlight is directly related to the projected area of the collector perpendicular to the incident solar beam radiation. The
geometric concentration ratio is defined as

Where, Aa is the total collector area and

Aabs is the area of the receiver/absorber surface

3.Fabrication of Experimental Set up

The various elements of the setup (Parabolic Concentrating Solar Cooker) are as follows:
1] Design of Concentrated Solar dish
2] Manual tracking mechanism
3] Selection of the material for the experimental set up
3.1 Design Parabolic Solar Dish
The various factors taken into consideration for formulating the primary reflector are
1] Diameter of the Reflector (Dish) = 1.4 m
2] Diameter of the Absorber (Cooker) = 0.213m
Specification of the absorber and reflector
Table.2. Design specification of the concentrated solar dish
Sr. no
1
2
3

Description
Concentrated type
Aperture area
Aperture diameter

Sizes
Parabolidal
1.539 m2
1.4 m

Focal length

0.35 m

Absorber diameter

0.213

Absorber area

0.03563 m2

Optical concentration ratio

44

3.2 Manual Tracking System

The main purpose of the tracking system is to trace the path of the sun movement. This is obtained by two methods one
is Automatic tracking system and second is Manual tracking system. In this research used a manual tracking system,
whose operation is very simple.
3.3 Selection of the material for the Experimental set up
3.3.1 Material for the Body of the Dish
Aluminium material was selected because of its lightness, lower cost, ease of fabrication and energy effectiveness in use
of material. The reflectivity of the aluminium material is more than 85%

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3.3.2 Material for the Absorber

Aluminium was selected over copper and steel because of its lower cost, light weight, ease of fabrication and energy
effectiveness in use of material. Although copper having good thermal conductivity but cost is high. So Aluminium
material was selected because of the good thermal conductivity.
Table No 3 Properties of metals used for absorber plates [08]
Material

Density
(kg/m2)

Specific heat
(kJ/kg )

Thermal
Conductivity
(W/m0c)

Aluminium

2707

0.996

204

Iron

7897

0.452

73

Steel

7833

0.465

54

Cooper

8954

0.383

386

3.3.3 Material for the Absorber Surface Coating

The choice of the selective surface coating is on the basis of the absorbance and the Emittance of the material. Black
Nickel and Black Chrome material is selected on the basis of availability, cost and absorbance and Emittance
percentage.
3.3.4. Material for the Vertical Support of the Dish
The vertical support is required to dish which is given by Iron Rod. This is selected by the strength and cost basis.

4.Experimental set up

Figure No 1 Experimental Set up

5. Selective Surface Coating

There are various processes which can be used for deposition of selective coatings on the metal substrate including,
chemical vapour deposition (CVD), Sputtering, Electroless, Pulse plating electro deposition, and Spray pyrolysis etc.
Among these methods, because of simple set up, low cost process of coating in industrial scale, easy control of
production process and high speed production, electroplating methods attracted special attention [13].
5.1 Method used for Electroplating
Electroplating is a process in which by using electric current, a thin layer of metal is deposited on the surface of another
metal. Electroplating of metallic film is one of the appropriate techniques to obtaining absorber coatings with selective
optical properties for solar collectors. Electric current and reclamation agents that are used in this process are cheap
and this good economic sense to develop this approach. [13].The selective coatings are basically a two layer deposition
of the thin coating of bright and black metal. For electroplating aluminium is generally chosen as a metal substrate
considering its low cost, light weight, low emissivity and high thermal conductivity.

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Figure No 2 Schematic of electroplating system in hull cell [13]

The method used for electroplating coating procedure fallow by the Hull Cell Test Method. For experiments Black
nickel and Black Chrome was deposited on prepared aluminium substrates using electroplating technique in two steps;
the first step includes bright nickel and Bright chrome deposit and in second step Black Nickel and Black Chrome are
the one of the most commonly used solar selective coatings in solar collector systems for the efficient conversion of
solar energy into thermal energy [14]. These coatings selected on the absorptance and Emittance capacity. Such
coatings identified by High Solar absorptance (90%) and Low thermal Emittance (40%). Considering all these
studied cases selected for selective absorber coatings deposited on cookers.

6. Result and Discussion

The experiments carried out for different days in morning time 10.00 AM to 11.00 AM and under this time solar
intensity obtained in the range of 700 - 850 W/m2
Test was taken 4 days equally between Coated and Non Coated Cooker by changing water load means 3 Liter, 3.5 Liter
and 4 Liter etc. Mainly result contains Solar Radiation, Thermal Efficiency, Cooking Power and Standard Cooking
power.
6.1 Solar Intensity for variable Days
The Experiment conducted in the month of August and September. Below chart shows the solar intensity with respect
to time. In that maximum solar intensity obtained 755 W and The Solar radiation recorded by the sun-meter
instrument.

Figure No 3 Solar Intensity with respect to time

6.2 Thermal Efficiency
6.2.1 Thermal Efficiency obtained for Coated and Non-Coated Solar Cooker for 3 Litter water load
The performance of the concentrated cooker was evaluated by carrying out the tests suggested by Mullick Traditional
method characterizing the performance of the solar cookers based on energy analysis.

Figure No 4 Thermal Efficiency for the 3 Litter water

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The graph shows the difference between the three cooker means Non- coated; Black Nickel coated Cooker and Black
Chrome Coated Cooker etc. The Graph shows maximum thermal efficiency obtained for the Black Chrome Coated
Cooker between 49 to 50%, Second highest Thermal Efficiency obtained for Black Nickel Coated Cooker between 43 to
44% and for Non-coated cooker obtained between 37 to 39%. Lot of Thermal Efficiency difference obtained between
coated and Non Coated Cooker.
6.2.2 Thermal Efficiency obtained for Coated and Non-Coated Solar Cooker for 3.5 Litter water load

Figure No 5 Thermal Efficiency for the 3.5 Litter water

The graph shows difference of thermal efficiency between the three coatings for 3.5 Litter water load. The graph table
indicates the obtained readings for the coated and Non- coated cooker.
6.2.3 Thermal Efficiency obtained for Coated and Non-Coated Solar Cooker for 4 Litter water load

Figure No 6 Thermal Efficiency for the 4 Litter water

The above graph shows Thermal Efficiency comparison between three coatings for 4 litter water load. In this Thermal
Efficiency obtained for Non- coated cooker between 33 to 36%, For Black Nickel Coated cooker obtained thermal
efficiency constantly nearly 42% and for Black Chrome 48%.
6.3 Cooking Power
6.3.1 Cooking Power obtained for Coated and Non-Coated Solar Cooker for 3 Litter water load
Cooking Power was obtained more for coated cooker than the non-coated cooker. The cooking power is defined as the
rate of useful energy available during heating period. It may be determined as a product of the change in water
temperature for each interval and mass of the water contained in the cooking pot. Dividing the product by the time
contained in a periodic interval yields the cooking power in watts [11]. Cooking power Calculated with respect to days.
Below graphs shows the cooking power and standard cooking power for various water load.

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Figure No 7 Cooking Power for the 3 Litter water load

Figure No 8 Standard Cooking Power for the 3 Litter Water load

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The entire figures from 7 to 12 show cooking power and standard cooking power for various loads. Maximum cooking
power and standard cooking power obtained for the coated cooker than the non- coated cooker. Between two coated
cookers maximum cooking and standard cooking obtained for Black Chrome coated cooker. The details are shown in
two the below table.

7.Conclusion
Conclusion Table
Table No 4. Result Comparison table

Above table shows comparison between coated and Non Coated cookers for different water load capacity. In that we
found range of obtained Thermal Efficiency, Cooking power and Standard cooking power in Kw.
Conclusion Summery
A parabolic solar cooker designed and tested. The experimental result shows the Solar Radiation with respect to time,
Thermal Efficiency, Cooking Power and Standard Cooking Power between Coated and Non Coated cooker.
Specification of the Dish was maintained as above. Surface coatings used on cooker to increase thermal performance.
Black nickel and Black Chrome Coating are applied on the cooker. Maximum Thermal Efficiency obtained for Black
Chrome coated cooker. Table no 4 shows the comparison of result for different Coatings for various water loads. All
tests carried out in to the Energy studies lab under the Pune University which is Authorised lab for solar Energy

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Standard Cooking Power:Ps=

Nomenclature
Aap Area of Aperture (m2)
Aabs Area of Cooker (m2)
C
Concentration Ratio
Cpw Specific heat of water
f
Focal Length (m)
h
Depth of Parabola(m)
rim optimum rim angle
Mw Mass of Water (kg)
P
Cooking Power (W)
Ta
Ambient Temperature (C)
Twf Final water Temperature (C)
Twi Initial water Temperature (C)
Ib
Beam Intensity
t
Time
Ib
Beam Radiation
Half-acceptance angle
Acknowledgements
I acknowledge indebtedness thanks to Prof. Satish M. Murgutti (VPCOE, Baramati) for his valuable guidance
throughout the tenure of this work. I express my sincere thanks to Mr. Rahul Udawant (Energy Studies Department)
University of the Pune for their help, support during the fabrication work of set-up and Experimental Work.

References
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[9] S. John; Electro-Deposition of Nickel Black Solar Absorber Coatings, Metal Finishing, 1997 p. 84-86.

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[10] Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org.

[11] P. Bhatnagara, L. Michael Free; Selective Electro-Deposition of ZincNickel Alloy Through Porous Medium,
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[12] Ishan Purohit, Testing of solar cookers and evaluation of instrumentation error, Renewable Energy 35 (2010)
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[13] Z. Ghasempour, S. M. Rozati; Characterization of nanostructure black nickel coatings for solar collectors, world
renewable energy congress 2011 Sweden.
[14] P. K. Gogna, K. L. Chopra; Structure dependent thermal and optical properties of black nickel coatings, Thin
solid films 57, 1979, pp. 299-302.

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