CFD analysis of flow and geometric parameter for a double walled solar cooking unit

With increasing energy costs, a greater impetus is given to adopt renewable sources of energy in domestic applications. One of the major requirements in using solar energy for cooking application is the development of a cooking unit, which should be fast and energy efficient. In this connection, a double walled cooking unit (tava) was developed and its heat transfer rate was experimentally evaluated when the temperature of the oil in the tava increases and these results are used to compare the results obtained from the CFD results. After validation the analysis is further extended to analyze the performance under various flow and geometric conditions. For the selected geometry, three different cases of outlet configurations for the given inlet location were analyzed. In addition, the transient variation in heat flux from the cooking unit during the heating process was also arrived at, from the solution obtained by combining several steady state assumptions during the transient process. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.