Journal Pre-proof

Study the thermal performance of solar cookers by using metallic wires and
nanographene

M.S. Abd-Elhady, A.N.A. Abd-Elkerim, SeifA. Ahmed, M.A. Halim, A.I. Okail

PII: S0960-1481(19)31367-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.09.037
Reference: RENE 12259

To appear in: Renewable Energy

Received Date: 15 February 2019

Revised Date: 15 August 2019
Accepted Date: 12 September 2019

Please cite this article as: Abd-Elhady MS, Abd-Elkerim ANA, Ahmed S, Halim MA, Okail AI, Study the
thermal performance of solar cookers by using metallic wires and nanographene, Renewable Energy
(2019), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.09.037.

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 1 Study the Thermal Performance of Solar Cookers by
2 Using Metallic Wires and Nanographene
3 M.S. Abd-Elhady1, A.N.A. Abd-Elkerim2, Seif.A. Ahmed3, M.A. Halim4, and
4 Ahmed Abu-Oqail 5.
5 Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt.1
6 Mechanical Department, Industrial Technical Institute, Sohag, Egypt.2
7 Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt.3
8 Mechanical Department, Faculty of Industrial Education, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt.4
9 Mechanical Department, Faculty of Industrial Education, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt.5
10
11 ABSTRACT
12 The continuous increase in the level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the increase in fuel prices are the
13 main driving force to utilise various source of renewable energy. Among the clean energy technologies, solar
14 energy is recognized as one of the most promising choice since it is free and provides clean and environmentally
15 friendly energy. The objective of this paper is to improve the heating capabilities of evacuated tubes solar cookers
16 that operates based on a closed loop thermosyphon action, and utilize thermal oil as the heating medium. Two
17 identical evacuated tube solar cookers have been designed and built to study the influence of inserting metallic
18 wires or nanographene particles on the thermal performance of the cooker. Also, the study was based on the
19 thermal transfer of natural convection of the thermal oil movement within the evacuated tubes. The metallic wires
20 and the nanographene particles are inserted inside the evacuated tube, which is filled with the heat exchange oil.
21 One cooker is always tested without any modifications, i.e. taken as a reference point. The other cooker is the
22 developed cooker, i.e. with wires or particles. Steel, aluminum and copper wires have been examined, and the
23 number of wires has been varied between 5, 10 and 15. It has been found that the copper wires improve the rate of
24 heat transfer compared with steel wires, aluminum wires and the nanographene particles. It has been also obtained
25 that there is a critical number of wires, i.e. 10 wires, above that the rate of heat transfer by natural convection
26 decreases and this is due to the increased friction which resists the natural convection currents. Finally, adding
27 nanographene particles increases the viscosity of the oil, which increases the resistance to natural convection
28 currents and consequently decreases the rate of heat transfer by natural convection.
29 KEYWORDS: Solar cookers; nanographene; evacuated tube.

3
Seif Al Nasr Ahmed, dr.sife2011@yahoo.com
Faculty of Engineering Fax. : (+282) 2246796

1
30 1. Introduction
31 Solar energy offers a wide variety of applications and among these applications is solar
32 cooking, which is considered as one of the simplest, viable and attractive options in terms of the
33 utilization of solar energy. Solar cookers offer a free and clean cooking, which is attractive for either
34 modern urban life or rural living in developing countries that are grappled with lack of energy. A solar
35 cooker is a device that uses the energy of direct sun rays, i.e. the heat from the sun, to heat and cook
36 food. A vast majority of solar cookers that are presently in use are relatively cheap in operation,
37 because it uses no fuel and cost nothing to operate. Nowdays, many nonprofit organizations are
38 promoting their use worldwide in order to help reduce fuel costs (for low-income people) and air
39 pollution, and to slow down the deforestation and desertification caused by gathering firewood for
40 cooking. Solar energy is the flow of energy from the sun, and the primary forms of solar energy are
41 heat and light. Solar energy has been strongly promoted as a viable energy source, such that the solar
42 energy that reaches the earth in few hours is enough to meet the world’s demand of energy in one year
43 [1]. One of the simplest and direct applications of solar energy is the conversion of solar radiation into
44 heat used in different applications, e.g. water heating [2], water desalination, wastewater treatment [3],
45 and solar cooking [4]. Solar collectors [5] are the key element in solar energy systems that absorb the
46 solar radiation and convert it into a useable form of energy that is utilized to meet a specific demand.
47 There are different types of solar cookers, e.g. (a) the panel solar cooker which uses reflective panels to
48 focus sunlight onto a pot, (b) the box solar cookers that have an insulated box, topped with a
49 transparent glass or plastic cover and a reflector or reflectors that help heat the box, and (c) the
50 parabolic solar cooker which concentrates the sun's heat onto the bottom or the sides of a pot similar to
51 a stovetop [6]. A modified version of the parabolic solar cooker is the evacuated tube parabolic solar
52 collector, in which the parabolic trough concentrates the solar radiation onto an evacuated tube. A
53 comprehensive review on the progress and latest developments of evacuated tube solar collectors and
54 why evacuated tubes are mostly preferred can be found in [7]. Evacuated tube solar collectors are
55 extensively and widely used because its good thermal insulation characteristics and insensitivity to the
56 direction of sun light [8]. An evacuated tube collector is also very efficient to be used at high operating
57 temperatures [9]. The evacuated tube consists of two concentric tubes, i.e. an inner and an outer tube,
58 such that the air between the tubes is evacuated, and then the tubes are sealed together at the end [10-
59 11]. It has been shown that the vacuum between the tubes plays an important role in the thermal
60 performance of the evacuated tubes, such that it eliminates the convection loss, and improves the
61 thermal insulation [12]. The inner tube is coated with a selective coating material, which has a high
62 absorptivety and a low emissivity [13]. The inner tube absorbs the incident solar irradiance and
63 transfers that heat energy to the medium inside the inner tube. The function of an evacuated tube heat
64 pipes is to absorb the incident solar radiation over the evacuated tube and to transfer as much of that
65 absorbed energy in the form of heat to the inside of the tube, e.g. water or oil that is in contact with the
66 inner surface of the evacuated tube [14]. Morrison et al [15] studied the performance of a water-in-
67 glass evacuated tube solar pre-heater using the International Standard Test Method, and numerically
68 studied the water circulation through long single-ended thermosyphon tubes. It has been found that
69 there is a stagnant zone in the bottom of the tube, which influences the overall heating performance of
70 the tube. It has been reported by Abd-Elhady et al [16] that the heating efficiency of the evacuated tube
71 has increased in case of inserting oil in the evacuated tube and replacing the finned surface inside the
72 tube with foamed copper. Also, the thermal oil acts as heat storage medium. Evacuated tube solar
73 collectors can be classified as closed loop or open loop running under natural or forced circulation [17].
74 In a closed loop the heated medium is different than the used medium, while in an open loop the heated
75 medium is the used medium.
76
77 Nanofluids play a major role in heat transfer, because of its high thermal properties and excellent heat
78 transfer compared to the conventional base fluids [18-21]. Also, nanoparticles in heat transfer fluids
79 improve the rate of heat transfer because it increases the surface area of heat transfer. Nanofluids are
80 engineered by dispersing and stably suspending nanoparticles with typical size of the order of 1–100
81 nm in traditional heat transfer fluids [22]. A very small amount of nanoparticles in the base fluid, i.e.
82 1% by volume, can provide a strong improvement in the thermal properties of the host fluid [23].
83 Nanomaterials include Metal [23], Oxide [24], Nitride [25], Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) [26], graphene
84 oxide [27] and graphene [28]. Graphene is a single 2-D sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a crystalline
85 and hexagonal lattice [29]. It has been found that graphene nanofluid gives a higher thermal
86 conductivity enhancement compared with other nanoparticles [30]. The influence of graphene
87 nanofluids on heat transfer depends on the type of graphene and fluids, weight fraction of graphene,
88 size and shape of the nanoparticles, stability on fluids [31]. Graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) has a
89 superior thermal conductivity enhancement [32], i.e. 24.18% at 45˚C, over the base fluid obtained for

2
 90 the GAGNP-water nanofluid which contains only a low loading of nanoparticles of 0.05 vol.% in the
91 base fluid. Cadena-de la Peña et al. [40] reported that the heat convection coefficient of mineral oil can
92 be improved and the internal heat of the transformer can be easily dissipated through the addition of
93 nanoparticles. Also, they investigated that when the amount of nano-TiO2 content was 0.1%wt, the
94 kinematic viscosity was the lowest (15.81m2/s at 24 ˚ C). Ghodsinezhad et al. [41] indicates that in
95 general when nanoparticles volume fraction is high, the local Nusselt number along the heated surface
96 decreases and vice versa. It is also found that an increase in AR leads with increase in local Nusselt
97 number. However there is an optimum value of local Nusselt number where begins to decrease. It had
98 been decided by Maripia Andre et al. [42] suggested that increasing concentration of nanoparticles
99 improves heat transfer coefficient up to an optimum value of 15% enhancement, at 0.1% volume
100 fraction, then further increasing of concentration of the nanoparticles deteriorates natural convection
101 heat transfer coefficient. They also supports the idea of “for nanofluids with thermal conductivity more
102 than the base fluids, there may exist an optimum concentration which maximizes the heat transfer in an
103 exact condition as natural convection, laminar forced convection or turbulence forced convection”.
104 Afrand et al. [43] revealed that the dynamic viscosity enhances with an increase in the solid volume
105 fraction and decreases with increasing temperature. Moreover, results indicated that the maximum
106 enhancement of viscosity of the hybrid nanofluid was 37.4%.
107
108
109 The objective of this study is to improve the thermal performance of closed loop solar
110 collectors/cookers that utilizes evacuated tubes by inserting metallic wires or nanographene particles
111 inside the evacuated tube [7], and utilize thermal oil as the heating medium. Straight metallic wires
112 have been used instead of twisted wires to avoid excessive friction and pressure drop across the heat
113 transfer fluid. Two identical evacuated tube solar cookers have been designed and built, such that one
114 cooker is always tested without any modifications, i.e. taken as a reference point, and the other cooker
115 as the developed cooker, i.e. with wires or particles. The metallic wires or the nanographene particles
116 are inserted inside the evacuated tube, which is filled with the heat exchange oil. Steel, aluminum and
117 copper wires have been examined, and the number of wires has been varied between 5, 10 and 15.
118 Nanographene particles of average diameter 20 nm have been used, such that the concentration of the
119 particles in the thermal oil has been varied between 0.34×10-3, 0.67×10-3 and 1×10-3 % wt.
120
121 2. Experimental Setup and Procedure
122 2.1 Experimental setup
123 Two identical solar cookers have been built as shown in Fig. 1. The solar cooker consists of three
124 parts: (1) a parabolic trough, (2) an evacuated tube installed at the focal line of the trough, and (3) an
125 oil tank that is connected to the evacuated tube. The oil that fills the oil tank can pass to the evacuated
126 tube and vice versa. The oil tank is externally insulated using Styrofoam [17] to minimize heat losses to
127 the surroundings, and inside the oil tank is the cooking pan to be heated up. The parabolic trough is
128 inclined 30o with the horizontal and it is installed facing the south. The solar cooker is mounted on a
129 frame with wheels, such that it is possible to move the cooker easily.

130
131 Fig.1. Solar cooker and its components. (1) the parabolic trough; (2) the evacuated tube; and (3) the oil tank. T1,
132 T2 and T3 are the temperature measuring points.
133
134 The solar cooker operates based on the closed loop thermosyphon action, and utilizes thermal oil as the
135 heat transfer medium. Incident solar radiation is focused by the parabolic trough at the evacuated tube

3
136 such that the oil inside the tube is heated. Cold oil inside the oil tank replaces the hot oil inside the
137 evacuated tube due to buoyancy affect, such that the hot oil rises upwards towards the oil tank and
138 heats the cooking pan. The outer diameter and height of the oil tank are 0.4 m and 0.6 m, respectively.
139 While the outer diameter and height of the cooking pan are 0.3 m and 0.4 m, respectively. The thermal
140 oil that has been used is Mobil-Therm 605 [33]. The thermal oil specifications are, density 880 kg/m3,
141 specific heat capacity 2.9 kJ/kg·K, kinematic viscosity at 25 ºC is 3.15×10-5 m2/s and the boiling
142 temperature is 300ºC. The temperature of the oil has been measured at three points as indicated in Fig.
143 1 and the simple sketch in Fig. 2. The points are: T1 at the middle of the evacuated tube, T2 at the
144 connection of the evacuated tube with the oil tank and T3 inside the oil tank. T2 is the temperature of
145 the mixing point between the hot oil rising from the evacuated tube and the cold oil coming from the
146 oil tank, i.e. cooking area, which is an indication about the average temperature of the oil inside the
147 collector. The temperature of the oil has been measured using a k-type thermocouple. It was found
148 from the previous research and kataloge that the uncertainty of a k-type thermocouple is ± 0.4 ˚C [44].
149 The thermocouple sensor is connected to a reader such that the measured temperature can be stored and
150 retrieved later.

151
152 Fig. 2 Temperature measuring points, which are; T1 at the middle of the evacuated tube, T2 at connection of the
153 evacuated tube with the oil tank and T3 inside the oil tank.

154 The evacuated tube used is 180 cm long, and the outer and inner diameters of the tube are 5.8
155 cm and 5 cm, respectively. The inner tube is filled with about 2.5 lit of thermal oil. The solar collector
156 has been designed and manufactured indoors [35], and more details about the design could be found in
157 [36]. The dimensions and the different parameters of the parabolic trough are presented in Table 1.
158 Polished aluminum sheet has been used as the reflecting surface of the parabolic trough, and the
159 reflectance of the surface was measured through UV/Visible Spectrophotometer device type T 90+
160 [37], and it was equal to 0.93. The surface roughness was measured through the surface roughness
161 tester TR100 device [38] and it is equal to Rz=0.26 µm.
162
163 Table 1 Dimensions of the parabolic trough
164
Content Value
Parabola length 1.7 m
Parabola width 0.6 m
Parabola depth 0.4 m
Focal height 0.056 m
Ram angle 139˚
165
166 2.2 Experimental procedure
167 Three sets of experiments have been performed. In the first set of experiments the influence of
168 the metallic wires material on the performance of solar cooker is examined, while in the second set of
169 experiments the influence of the number of wires is tested. The influence of adding nanographene
170 particles on the performance of the cooker is determined in the Third set of experiments. The two
171 identical solar cookers are tested at the same time in the sun in each of the performed experiments.
172 Metallic wires or nanographene particles are inserted in one cooker, and the other cooker is tested
173 without any additives, i.e. no wires or graphene particles are added. So the results of that cooker are
174 used as a reference for comparison. The metallic wires are inserted inside the evacuated tube together
175 with the heat transfer fluid, i.e. the thermal oil. The diameter and length of the wires is constant through

4
176 all of the performed experiments, and equal to 1 mm and 1.8 m respectively. The wires are distributed
177 circumferentially at equal distance, and only one wire in the center. An example of the inserted wires is
178 shown in Fig. 3. Steel, aluminum and copper wires have been examined, and the number of wires has
179 been varied between 5, 10 and 15. The wires are arranged inside the evacuated tube and kept in a fixed
180 position via a perforated circular plate, i.e. a fixation plate, as shown in Fig. 4. The diameter of the
181 circualar plate is smaller than the inner diameter of the evacuated tube, to allow for the free flow of the
182 oil inside the tube. Both cookers are installed in the sun facing south, and the temperature of the oil,
183 ambient temperature as well as the incident solar irradiance are measured starting from 8:00 am till
184 4:00 pm. The experiments are performed in Upper Egypt in Sohag (latitude 26° 36' 50" N and
185 longitude 31° 47' 20" E) during the period from 12 April 2017 to 4 May 2017.
186

187
188 Fig. 3 Five aluminum wires of diameter 1 mm passing through a perforted circular plate.
189
190
191 Evacuated
192 tube
193 Free area Fixation
194 plate
195
196
197
198
199 Fig. 4 Wires fixation plate (perforated plate) inside the evacuated tube, and the free area between them to allow for
200 the flow of oil inside the tube.
201
202 Nanographene particles of average diameter 20 nm has been prepared and mixed with the
203 thermal oil according to the method discussed in section 2.2.1. The Particle size measured for nano-
204 graphene atoms are of width between 80-100 nm and thickness from 2-5 nm. The concentration of the
205 particles in the thermal oil has been varied between 0.34×10-3, 0.67×10-3 and 1×10-3 wt%. The prepared
206 graphene nanofluid with thermal oil is inserted inside the solar cooker and the performance of the
207 cooker is examined in the same procedure explained above in case of inserting metallic wires.
208
209 2.2.1 Graphene nanofluid preparation
210 Graphene nanofluid with thermal oil was prepared through the preparation of graphene nanoplates by
211 Hummer's method [33], then the graphene nanoplatelets were dispersed in the thermal oil by
212 sonication. The schematic diagram for the preparation of the graphene nanofluid with thermal oil is
213 shown in Fig. 5. Firstly, each carbon atom in the graphite structure is covalently bonded and arranged
214 hexagonally in a planar stacked ring system. Bonding between layers is weak bonds and the distance
215 between layers is 0.34 nm, which allows layers of graphite to be easily separated, as shown in Fig. 5.a.
216 Graphite can be considered as being made from many layers of graphene, which can be separated to
217 single layers of graphene by oxidizing the graphite to graphene oxide, Fig.5.b. The graphene
218 nanoplatelets are attained by reduction of the grahene oxide. In the second stage, the graphene
219 nanofluid is produced by using probe high sonication technique [33] to disperse graphene nanoplatelets
220 within the thermal oil fluid. An image of the oil and the graphene nanofluid are shown a Fig. 5.f., and it
221 can be seen that the presence of the nanographene particles has changed the oil from being transparent
222 to a dark and a non-transparent substance.

5
223
224 Fig. 5 Schematic diagrams of graphene preparation from graphite and suspension in thermal oil.
225
226 3. Experimental Results and Discussion
227 3.1 First set of experiments; steel, aluminum and copper Wires (no. of wires 5)
228 The influence of the material of the inserted wires is examined in this set of experiment, such that steel,
229 aluminum and copper wires are examined. Three experiments have been performed on three
230 consecutive days, and in each day a different material is tested. The two developed solar cookers are
231 tested at the same time and place, such that one cooker is with wires and the other is without wires. The
232 temperature of the oil has been measured at the three points, as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, and the
233 temperature of oil at the tip of the evacuated tube, i.e. T2, is presented in Fig. 6. It has been mentioned
234 that T2 represents the average temperature inside the evacuated tube, since it is a mixing point between
235 the hot oil coming from the evacuated tube and the relatively cold oil inside the cooking pan, and
236 therefore T2 is the only temperature to be presented for the sake of simplicity and clarity. The
237 temperature of the oil in the solar cooker that contains no wires is taken as the reference of
238 improvement. It can be seen from Fig. 6.a that the temperature of the oil in case of using steel wires is
239 very close to the no wire case, i.e. (the reference), which indicates that using steel wires is useless.
240 While, the temperature of the oil in case of using aluminum wires is lower than the reference, as shown
241 in Fig. 6.b, which indicates the negative effect of using aluminum wires. However, the temperature of
242 the oil has increased above the reference in case of using copper wires, as shown in Fig. 6.c.
243

244
245 (a)

6
246
247 (b)

248
249 (c)
250
251 Fig. 6 Temperature of the oil at the tip of the evacuated tube in case of not using (Tref.) and using (Twire) (a) steel
252 wires, (b) aluminum wires, and (c) copper wires.
253 The percentage increase in temperature above the reference measurements is shown in Fig. 7, and the
254 average percentage increase in temperature from 10 am to 2 pm is shown in Fig. 7. The percentage
255 increase in temperature, ∆T%, is calculated based on,
256
T − Tref .
257 ∆T% = wires × 100, (1)
Tref .
258 Where Twires is the temperature of the oil in case of inserting wires inside the evacuated tube, and Tref.
259 is the temperature of the oil in case of non inserted wires. It can be seen From Fig. 7 that the average
260 percentage increase in the oil temperature in case of using copper wires is 6.9%, -10% in case of
261 aluminum wires and zero in case of steel wires. It can be concluded from the performed experiment
262 that adding copper wires improves the rate of heat transfer to the thermal oil compared to utilizing
263 aluminum or steel wires [17].
264

265
266 Fig. 7 Percentage increase in the oil temperature, ∆T%, above the reference cooker, in case of using copper, steel
267 and aluminum wires.
268
269 The improvement in the thermal performance of the cooker due to utilizing copper wires compared to
270 aluminum and steel wires can be attributed to the large thermal conductivity of copper compared to
271 aluminum and steel. The physical properties of copper, steel and aluminum are shown in Table 2. The
272 thermal conductivity, k, of copper is equal to 401 W/m.K, which is greater than that of steel (80.1

7
273 W/m.K), and aluminum (237 W/m.K). Another important parameter that can explain the difference in
274 thermal performance between the different wires is the thermal diffusivity of the material used. The
275 thermal diffusivity, α [17] in heat transfer analysis is the thermal conductivity divided by density and
276 specific heat capacity at constant pressure. It measures the rate of heat transfer of material from the hot
277 end to the cold end, and defined as how quickly a material can carry heat away from a hot source, and
278 it is equal to,
279
k
280 α= (2)
ρcp
281 Where ρ the density, and cp is the heat capacity. But the thermal conductivity of a material is a
282 measure of its ability to conduct heat. Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate in materials of low thermal
283 conductivity than in materials of high thermal conductivity. The thermal diffusivity of copper is
284 116×10-6 m2/s, as shown in Table 2, which is greater than that of steel and aluminum, which are equal
285 to 22.85×10-6 m2/s and 97.31×10-6 m2/s, respectively. It can be concluded that the large thermal
286 conductivity and diffusivity of copper can explain the improvement in the thermal performance of the
287 cooker due to utilizing copper wires compared to aluminum and steel wires. However, neither the
288 thermal conductivity nor the thermal diffusivity can explain the difference in performance between the
289 aluminum and steel wires, because the thermal conductivity and diffusivity of the aluminum is much
290 higher than that of steel but the thermal performance in case of using aluminum is lower than that of
291 steel. The thermal oil inside the evacuated tube is heated by the incident solar radiation, and its
292 temperature becomes higher than the oil inside the cooking pan, such that a buoyancy affect is
293 observed. Natural convection currents are governed by Grashof number [17], which is ratio between
294 the buoyancy force to the viscous force and equal to,

Buouancy Force g β ∆T V
295 Gr = = (3)
Viscous Force υ2

296 Where β is the volumetric expansion coefficient, V is the volume, ∆T is the temperature difference and
297 υ is the kinematic viscosity. If the buoyancy force acting on the thermal oil inside the evacuated tube is
298 greater than frictional/viscous force resisting its motion, then convectional currents occur and the hot
299 oil rises upwards towards the cooking pan and heats the pan. The viscous and frictional forces acting
300 on the thermal oil is a function of the inserted wires. The static coefficient of friction of the aluminum
301 wires is 0.3, as shown in Table 2, which is approximately two times that of steel, i.e. 0.16, and four
302 times that of copper, i.e. 0.08. It can be concluded that the resistance of the aluminum wires to the
303 natural convection currents is more than that of steel and copper wires, due to its large coefficient of
304 friction, which have resulted in degradation of the thermal performance of the cooker compared to the
305 cooker with steel or copper wires.
306
307 Table 2 Physical properties of steel, aluminum and copper [17]
308
Thermal conductivity Density Heat capacity Thermal Static friction coef.
diffusivity
K W/m.K ρ kg/m3 cp=kJ/kg. α=k/ρ.cp m2/s. µs

Steel 80.2 7800 0.45 22.85×10-6 0.16

Aluminum 237 2700 0.902 97.31×10-6 0.3
Copper 401 8960 0.386 116×10-6 0.08
309
310 It can be concluded from the performed experiment that inserting steel or aluminum wires is not a good
311 option, i.e. it will not assist natural convection currents because of its large coefficient of friction, and
312 the best option is inserting copper wires because of its high thermal diffusivity and low friction
313 coefficient, such that both parameters assist heat transfer by natural convection. The influence of the
314 number of copper wires is examined in the next set of experiments, as a step to find out the ideal
315 number of wires.
316
317 3.2 Second set of experiments; copper wires (no of wires 5, 10 and 15)
318 The influence of the number of wires on the thermal performance of the solar cooker is examined in
319 this set of experiments. Only copper wires are tested, and the number of wires has been varied between
320 5, 10 and 15 wires. The temperature of the oil at the tip of the evacuated tube is presented in Fig. 8, and

8
321 that is in case of using 5, 10 and 15 copper wires. Also, the outside temperature has been presented in
322 Fig. 8. The diameter and length of the copper wires is the same as in the previous set of experiments,
323 i.e. 1 mm and 1.8 m, respectively. The temperature of the oil in the cooker with wires is always greater
324 than the reference cooker, in case of using 5 and 10 wires, as can be seen in Fig 8.a and Fig 8.b. The
325 difference in temperatures between the cooker with wires and the reference cooker is small in case of 5
326 wires and that difference increases as the number of inserted wires increases to 10 wires, which
327 indicates the improvement in performance with the number of wires. However, increasing the number
328 of wires to 15 wires has decreased the thermal performance of the cooker, such that the temperature of
329 the oil in the reference cooker is larger than or equal to the temperature of oil in the cooker with wires,
330 as can be seen in Fig. 8.c.

331
332 (a)

333
334 (b)

335
336 (c)
337 Fig. 8 Temperature of the oil at the tip of the evacuated tube incase of no wirws (Tref.) and using copper wires
338 (Twire) of (a) 5 wires, (b) 10 wires and (c) 15 wires.
339 Oil temperature, ∆T% avg above the reference cooker in case of inserting 5, 10 and 15 copper wires.
340 The percentage increase in the oil temperature is calculated based on Eq. (1), and based on that the
341 average percentage increase in the oil temperature over the time interval from 10 am : 2 pm is
342 calculated. It can be observed that the average percentage increase in the oil temperature in case of
343 using 5 copper wires approximately 6.9%, and that percentage has increased nearly to 25.8% in case of
344 10 wires and then drops to 3.1% in case of 15 wires. It can be concluded that the ideal number of
345 copper wires that can be inserted is 10 wires, such that below and above that number of wires the
346 performance decreases.

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347
348 Inserting copper wires inside the evacuated tube of a solar cooker improves the overall heat
349 transfer coefficient by natural convection inside the tube, which results an increasing the overall
350 temperature of the oil inside the tube and subsequently the temperature difference between the oil
351 inside the evacuated tube and the cooking pan. The buoyancy force acting on the oil, which is the
352 prime mover of the convectional currents, is a function of the oil temperature difference. It can be
353 concluded that increasing the number of wires increases the buoyancy forces as well as the viscous and
354 frictional forces acting on the oil inside the evacuated tube. This leads to increasing Grashof number.
355 The effect of buoyancy parameter is highly significant in the laminar flow within the boundary layer
356 formed on a vertically evacuated tube [39]. Below a certain number of wires, which will be called the
357 critical number of wires, the buoyancy force is larger than the viscous force that results in more
358 convective currents and heat transfer. Above that critical number of wires, the viscous force becomes
359 comparable to the buoyancy force, which results in suppressing the convectional currents and
360 deteriorating the rate of heat transfer. There are a critical number of wires that can be inserted at which
361 the thermal performance of the cooker is the best. This critical value could be a function of many
362 parameters, e.g. the inserted wires material and diameter, the diameter of the evacuated tube and the
363 type of thermal oil used. Further research is performed to model numerically the heat transfer across an
364 evacuated that is filled with oil and metallic wires, as a step to find the critical number and diameter of
365 wires that should be used.
366
367 3.3 Third set of experiments; nanographene particles
368 The influence of adding nanographene particles on the thermal performance of the cooker is examined
369 in this set of experiments. Three experiments have been performed such that the concentration of the
370 nano particles in the thermal oil has been varied between 0.34×10-3, 0.67×10-3 and 1×10-3 wt.%. The
371 temperature of the oil at the tip of the evacuated tube for the performed experiments is presented in Fig.
372 9, as well as the outside temperature. It can be seen that the temperature of the oil in the reference
373 cooker is a bit lower than the temperature of the oil in the cooker with nanographene particles of
374 concentration of 0.34×10-3 wt%, as can be seen in Fig. 9.a, which indicates that there is a marginal
375 improvement in the thermal performance of the cooker due to the addition of the nano particles [22. 23,
376 32]. However, increasing the concentration of the nano particles to 0.67×10-3 and 1×10-3 wt % has
377 deteriorated the performance of the cooker such that the temperature of the oil in the reference cooker
378 becomes larger than or equal to the temperature of oil in the cooker with particles [24, 31, 40, 42], as
379 can be seen in Fig. 9.b and c.
380

381
382 (a)

383
384 (b)

10
385
386 (c)
387 Fig. 9 Temperature of the oil at the tip of the evacuated tube in case of no adds (Tref.) and adding nanographene
388 particles in the thermal oil.
389
390 The percentage increase in the oil temperature is calculated based on Eq. (1), and based on that the
391 average percentage increase in the oil temperature over the time interval 10 am: 2 pm is calculated. It is
392 obseved that the average percentage increase in the oil temperature approximately 8.2% in case of
393 graphene concentration of 0.34×10-3 wt.%, and that percentage drops nearly to -1.3% and -9.3%, in
394 case of concentrations of 0.67×10-3 and 1×10-3 wt.%, respectively. It can be inferred that the average
395 percentage increase in the oil temperature decreases with the concentration of the nanographene
396 particles. The average percentage increase in the oil temperature in case of inserting 10 copper wires
397 approximately 25.8% as have been found from the performed experiments. It can be concluded from
398 the performed experiments that the thermal performance of the solar cooker decreases with the
399 concentration of the nanographene particles greater than 0.34×10-3 wt.%, and adding nano particles to
400 the heat transfer medium, i.e. thermal oil, don’t assist natural convection currents [23, 32]. A
401 Transmission Electron Microscopic (TEM) picture of a small droplet of oil mixed with the
402 nanograhene platelets is presented in Fig. 10. The black color is the nanographene, while the dark gray
403 color is the oil. It can be seen that the oil and the nanographene are very well mixed together, which
404 forms a new mixture that has different physical properties than the original oil itself. The viscosity of
405 the thermal oil has been measured as a function of temperature and concentration of the nanograhene,
406 and the results are shown in Fig. 11. The viscosity has been measured using the Anton Paar MCR-301
407 rheometer. It can be seen that the viscosity of the thermal oil increases with the concentration of the
408 nanographene particles. It can be noted that deterioration in the thermal performance of the solar
409 cooker due to the addition of the nano particles is due to increase in the viscosity of the oil, which does
410 not assist the formation of natural convection currents and consequently heat transfer by natural
411 convection.

412
413 Fig.10 TEM picture of a small droplet of oil mixed with the nanograhene platelets, the black color is the
414 nanographene, while the dark gray color is the oil.
415 .

11
416
417 Fig.11. Viscosity of the thermal oil as a function of temperature and graphene concentration.
418
419 4. Conclusions
420 It can be concluded from the performed experiments that;
421 1- Inserting copper wires in the evacuated tubes of solar collectors assists heat transfer by natural
422 convection because of the high thermal diffusivity and low friction coefficient of copper, such that it
423 improves the thermal performance of the cooker [17].
424 2- Inserting steel or aluminum wires inside the evacuated tubes of solar collectors does not assist
425 natural convection currents, because of the low thermal diffusivity and relatively large friction
426 coefficient of these materials, which can results in deteriorating the thermal performance of the cooker
427 3- There are a critical number of wires, 10 wires that can be inserted inside the evacuated tube of solar
428 cookers, such that below or above that critical number the thermal performance deteriorates.
429 4- Adding nano grapheme particles to thermal oil increases the viscosity of the oil approximately 35%,
430 which does not assist the formation of natural convection currents and consequently heat transfer by
431 natural convection [22. 23, 32, 40, 45].
432 5- Adding nano grapheme particles contents up to 0.34×10-3 wt.% to the heat transfer medium of solar
433 cookers, i.e. thermal oil increases the heat transfer rate, but increases the nano grapheme particles
434 content up to this perecent deteriorates the performance of the cooker [23, 32, 40, 42].
435 6. Increasing the value of Grashof number or any buoyancy related parameter decide an increase in the
436 wall temperature and this makes the bonds between the fluid to become weaker, strength of the internal
437 friction to decrease, the grav-ity to becomes stronger enough [39].
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525
526
527 Biography

528 This is my photo (Author)

529 Author Name: Seif Al Nasr Ahmed Abd Alghany.
530 M. Sc., Mechanical Engineering (Power and Energy), Egypt, Al- Minia University, Faculty of
531 Engineering, 1999.
532 Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering (power and Energy), Egypt, Al Minia University, Faculty of
533 Engineering, 2002.
534 Lecture in Faculty of Engineering, Beni-Suef University.

13
Highlights
 Thermal performance of closed loop solar cookers with evacuated tubes
was improved.
 Metallic wires inserted in the evacuated tube were investigated
.
 The influence of adding nanographene particles to thermal oil on the
solar cooker was studied.
.
 The critical numper of wires inserted inside the evacuated tube of solar
cookers were investigated.