Comparative Study of Adding Two Reflectors for Different Solar Cooker Geometries

Abstract

The use of renewable energy, which is naturally inexhaustible, has seen significant growth in recent years. It plays a crucial role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and contributes to the global fight against climate change. Solar concentration technologies, which produce heat and electricity without relying on fossil fuels or generating polluting emissions, are driving a transition toward the use of solar, wind, and hydro energy. Among the methods that directly utilize solar energy are solar cookers, which capture and concentrate sunlight to generate heat. In this study, an optical simulation was conducted to analyze the distribution of solar rays on absorbers with different solar cooker geometries. The aim was to evaluate the effect of adding reflectors on solar ray concentration across various days of the year. Two reflectors were considered in this study: a primary reflector and a secondary one. The results indicate that using a primary reflector provides better ray concentration compared to a secondary reflector when applied to the front wall of the cookers, regardless of the selected geometries.