Numerical and experimental investigation on the thermal performance of parabolic dish solar cooker with elliptical‐shaped cooking vessel

Abstract In this study, an elliptical cooking vessel with a parabolic dish solar collector was investigated numerically and experimentally to know its cooking performance. The full experiment was conducted in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia weather conditions, with a latitude of 11°36′ N, longitude of 37°23′ E, and an elevation of 1799 meters above sea level. An elliptical‐shaped aluminum cooking vessel was used for both stagnation and load tests. The maximum stagnation temperature measured at the bottom of the cooking vessel reached 301.77°C for a beam radiation of 857.45 W/m 2 during the stagnation test, which was carried out over a few days with an average ambient temperature of about 27.5°C. Based on the stagnation study the first figure of merit of the solar cooker's is 0.355. During the load test, the cooking pot was filled with 4.5 kg of water for the iterative testing date, starting at 12:00, with an average ambient temperature of 30°C and beam radiation of 808.85 W/m 2 , respectively. The average periods for both heating and cooling 4.5 kg of water were 34.5 and 124.3 min, respectively, during the load test, which included both heating and cooling phases. The thermal performance parameters which were investigated during testing time were thermal efficiency, cooking power, standard cooking power, and second Figure of Merit, which were 48.78%, 600.99 W, 514.5 W, and 0.557, respectively.