Browsing by Author "U. J. Rumah"

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    Performance Testing Of a Truncated Pyramid Solar Thermal Cooker
    (2013) I.L. Mohammed; U. J. Rumah; A.T. Abdulrahim
    This paper presents the results of performance testing of a truncated pyramid solar thermal cooker developed in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna, Nigeria. The truncated pyramidal geometry concentrates the incident solar energy radiations towards the absorber placed at the bottom, and the glass glazing material at the top facilitates the trapping of energy inside the cooker. During testing, the highest plate stagnation temperature achieved, under no-load condition and reflector covered with black cloth, was 145 oC. In full-load condition the temperature of 5.2 kg of water inside the cooker rose from 60 oC to 90 oC in 72 minutes. The First Figure of Merit, F1, was calculated to be 0.120 and the Second Figure of Merit, F2, was found to be 0.410, thus meeting the standard prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards for box-type solar cookers. The relatively high absorber plate temperature developed during testing demonstrates that the cooker can be used for all the four major methods of cooking, viz: boiling/ steaming, baking, roasting/grilling, and frying (of eggs).