| As population pressures on remaining forest resources increase, women in developing countries are forced to spend more time gathering wood fuel for cooking. Solar cooker use has the potential to reduce this burden. There is a need to develop many different solar cooker designs, each suited to a particular climate and cuisine. However, there is not a good general understanding of the relationship between design variables and performance.; This dissertation addresses this problem by presenting a model that can predict cooking power based on three controlled parameters (solar intercept area, overall heat loss coefficient, and absorber plate thermal conductivity) and three uncontrolled variables (insolation, temperature difference, and load distribution). The model is a fundamental energy balance equation. Coefficients for each term in the model were determined by regression analysis of experimental data. The model was validated for commercially available solar cookers of both the box and concentrating types. The valid range of the model covers most of the feasible design space for family-sized solar cookers. The model can be used to find the combinations of intercept area and heat loss coefficient required to cook a given quantity of food in a given climate. It can also be used to estimate the cooking capacity of existing box-type and concentrating solar cookers. |
