Renewable Energy 153 (2020) 108e116

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Review

Study the thermal performance of solar cookers by using metallic

wires and nanographene
M.S. Abd-Elhady a, A.N.A. Abd-Elkerim b, Seif A. Ahmed a, *, M.A. Halim c,
Ahmed Abu-Oqual c
a
Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt
b
Mechanical Department, Industrial Technical Institute, Sohag, Egypt
c
Mechanical Department, Faculty of Industrial Education, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The continuous increase in the level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the increase in fuel prices are
Received 15 February 2019 the main driving force to utilize various source of renewable energy. Among the clean energy technologies,
Received in revised form solar energy is recognized as one of the most promising choice since it is free and provides clean and
15 August 2019
environmentally friendly energy. The objective of this paper is to improve the heating capabilities of
Accepted 12 September 2019
Available online 20 September 2019
evacuated tubes solar cookers that operates based on a closed loop thermosyphon action, and utilize
thermal oil as the heating medium. Two identical evacuated tube solar cookers have been designed and
built to study the influence of inserting metallic wires or nanographene particles on the thermal perfor-
Keywords:
Solar cookers
mance of the cooker. Also, the study was based on the thermal transfer of natural convection of the thermal
Nanographene oil movement within the evacuated tubes. The metallic wires and the nanographene particles are inserted
Evacuated tube inside the evacuated tube, which is filled with the heat exchange oil. One cooker is always tested without
any modifications, i.e. taken as a reference point. The other cooker is the developed cooker, i.e. with wires
or particles. Steel, aluminum and copper wires have been examined, and the number of wires has been
varied between 5, 10 and 15. It has been found that the copper wires improve the rate of heat transfer
compared with steel wires, aluminum wires and the nanographene particles. It has been also obtained that
there is a critical number of wires, i.e. 10 wires, above that the rate of heat transfer by natural convection
decreases and this is due to the increased friction which resists the natural convection currents. Finally,
adding nanographene particles increases the viscosity of the oil, which increases the resistance to natural
convection currents and consequently decreases the rate of heat transfer by natural convection.
© 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
2. Experimental setup and procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
2.1. Experimental setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
2.2. Experimental procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
2.2.1. Graphene nanofluid preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
3. Experimental results and discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
3.1. First set of experiments; steel, aluminum and copper wires (no. of wires 5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
3.2. Second set of experiments; copper wires (no of wires 5, 10 and 15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
3.3. Third set of experiments; nanographene particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: dr.sife2011@yahoo.com (S.A. Ahmed).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.09.037
0960-1481/© 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
 M.S. Abd-Elhady et al. / Renewable Energy 153 (2020) 108e116
1. Introduction
Solar energy offers a wide variety of applications and among
these applications is solar cooking, which is considered as one of
the simplest, viable and attractive options in terms of the utilization
of solar energy. Solar cookers offer a free and clean cooking, which
is attractive for either modern urban life or rural living in devel-
oping countries that are grappled with lack of energy. A solar
cooker is a device that uses the energy of direct sun rays, i.e. the
heat from the sun, to heat and cook food. A vast majority of solar
cookers that are presently in use are relatively cheap in operation,
because it uses no fuel and cost nothing to operate. Nowadays,
many nonprofit organizations are promoting their use worldwide
in order to help reduce fuel costs (for low-income people) and air
pollution, and to slow down the deforestation and desertification
caused by gathering firewood for cooking. Solar energy is the flow
of energy from the sun, and the primary forms of solar energy are
heat and light. Solar energy has been strongly promoted as a viable
energy source, such that the solar energy that reaches the earth in
few hours is enough to meet the world's demand of energy in one
year [1]. One of the simplest and direct applications of solar energy
is the conversion of solar radiation into heat used in different ap-
plications, e.g. water heating [2], water desalination, wastewater
treatment [3], and solar cooking [4]. Solar collectors [5] are the key
element in solar energy systems that absorb the solar radiation and
convert it into a useable form of energy that is utilized to meet a
specific demand. There are different types of solar cookers, e.g. (a)
the panel solar cooker which uses reflective panels to focus sunlight
onto a pot, (b) the box solar cookers that have an insulated box,
topped with a transparent glass or plastic cover and a reflector or
reflectors that help heat the box, and (c) the parabolic solar cooker
which concentrates the sun's heat onto the bottom or the sides of a
pot similar to a stovetop [6]. A modified version of the parabolic
solar cooker is the evacuated tube parabolic solar collector, in which
the parabolic trough concentrates the solar radiation onto an
evacuated tube. A comprehensive review on the progress and latest
developments of evacuated tube solar collectors and why evacu-
ated tubes are mostly preferred can be found in Ref. [7]. Evacuated
tube solar collectors are extensively and widely used because its
good thermal insulation characteristics and insensitivity to the di-
rection of sun light [8]. An evacuated tube collector is also very
efficient to be used at high operating temperatures [9]. The evac-
uated tube consists of two concentric tubes, i.e. an inner and an
outer tube, such that the air between the tubes is evacuated, and
then the tubes are sealed together at the end [10,11]. It has been
shown that the vacuum between the tubes plays an important role
in the thermal performance of the evacuated tubes, such that it
eliminates the convection loss, and improves the thermal insu-
lation [12]. The inner tube is coated with a selective coating ma-
terial, which has a high absorptivity and a low emissivity [13]. The
inner tube absorbs the incident solar irradiance and transfers that
heat energy to the medium inside the inner tube. The function of an
evacuated tube heat pipes is to absorb the incident solar radiation
over the evacuated tube and to transfer as much of that absorbed
energy in the form of heat to the inside of the tube, e.g. water or oil
that is in contact with the inner surface of the evacuated tube [14].
Morrison et al. [15] studied the performance of a water-in-glass
evacuated tube solar pre-heater using the International Standard
Test Method, and numerically studied the water circulation
through long single-ended thermosyphon tubes. It has been found
that there is a stagnant zone in the bottom of the tube, which in-
fluences the overall heating performance of the tube. It has been
reported by Abd-Elhady et al. [16] that the heating efficiency of the
evacuated tube has increased in case of inserting oil in the evacu-
ated tube and replacing the finned surface inside the tube with
109
foamed copper. Also, the thermal oil acts as heat storage medium.
Evacuated tube solar collectors can be classified as closed loop or
open loop running under natural or forced circulation [17]. In a
closed loop the heated medium is different than the used medium,
while in an open loop the heated medium is the used medium.
Nanofluids play a major role in heat transfer, because of its high
thermal properties and excellent heat transfer compared to the
conventional base fluids [18e21]. Also, nanoparticles in heat
transfer fluids improve the rate of heat transfer because it increases
the surface area of heat transfer. Nanofluids are engineered by
dispersing and stably suspending nanoparticles with typical size of
the order of 1e100 nm in traditional heat transfer fluids [22]. A very
small amount of nanoparticles in the base fluid, i.e. 1% by volume,
can provide a strong improvement in the thermal properties of the
host fluid [23]. Nanomaterials include Metal [23], Oxide [24],
Nitride [25], Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) [26], graphene oxide [27]
and graphene [28]. Graphene is a single 2-D sheet of carbon atoms
arranged in a crystalline and hexagonal lattice [29]. It has been
found that graphene nanofluid gives a higher thermal conductivity
enhancement compared with other nanoparticles [30]. The influ-
ence of graphene nanofluids on heat transfer depends on the type
of graphene and fluids, weight fraction of graphene, size and shape
of the nanoparticles, stability on fluids [31]. Graphene nano-
platelets (GNPs) has a superior thermal conductivity enhancement
[32], i.e. 24.18% at 45
C, over the base fluid obtained for the
GAGNP-water nanofluid which contains only a low loading of
nanoparticles of 0.05 vol% in the base fluid. Cadena-de la Pen ~ a et al.
[40] reported that the heat convection coefficient of mineral oil can
be improved and the internal heat of the transformer can be easily
dissipated through the addition of nanoparticles. Also, they inves-
tigated that when the amount of nano-TiO2 content was 0.1%wt,
the kinematic viscosity was the lowest (15.81m2/s at 24
C).
Ghodsinezhad et al. [41] indicates that in general when nano-
particles volume fraction is high, the local Nusselt number along
the heated surface decreases and vice versa. It is also found that an
increase in AR leads with increase in local Nusselt number. How-
ever there is an optimum value of local Nusselt number where
begins to decrease. It had been decided by Maripia Andre et al. [42]
suggested that increasing concentration of nanoparticles improves
heat transfer coefficient up to an optimum value of 15% enhance-
ment, at 0.1% volume fraction, then further increasing of concen-
tration of the nanoparticles deteriorates natural convection heat
transfer coefficient. They also supports the idea of “for nanofluids
with thermal conductivity more than the base fluids, there may
exist an optimum concentration which maximizes the heat transfer
in an exact condition as natural convection, laminar forced con-
vection or turbulence forced convection”. Afrand et al. [43] revealed
that the dynamic viscosity enhances with an increase in the solid
volume fraction and decreases with increasing temperature.
Moreover, results indicated that the maximum enhancement of
viscosity of the hybrid nanofluid was 37.4%.
The objective of this study is to improve the thermal perfor-
mance of closed loop solar collectors/cookers that utilizes evacu-
ated tubes by inserting metallic wires or nanographene particles
inside the evacuated tube [7], and utilize thermal oil as the heating
medium. Straight metallic wires have been used instead of twisted
wires to avoid excessive friction and pressure drop across the heat
transfer fluid. Two identical evacuated tube solar cookers have been
designed and built, such that one cooker is always tested without
any modifications, i.e. taken as a reference point, and the other
cooker as the developed cooker, i.e. with wires or particles. The
metallic wires or the nanographene particles are inserted inside the
evacuated tube, which is filled with the heat exchange oil. Steel,
aluminum and copper wires have been examined, and the number
of wires has been varied between 5, 10 and 15. Nanographene
110 M.S. Abd-Elhady et al. / Renewable Energy 153 (2020) 108e116

particles of average diameter 20 nm have been used, such that the

concentration of the particles in the thermal oil has been varied
between 0.34  103, 0.67  103 and 1  103 % wt.

2. Experimental setup and procedure

2.1. Experimental setup

Two identical solar cookers have been built as shown in Fig. 1.

The solar cooker consists of three parts: (1) a parabolic trough, (2)
an evacuated tube installed at the focal line of the trough, and (3) an
oil tank that is connected to the evacuated tube. The oil that fills the
oil tank can pass to the evacuated tube and vice versa. The oil tank is Fig. 2. Temperature measuring points, which are; T1 at the middle of the evacuated
externally insulated using Styrofoam [17] to minimize heat losses to tube, T2 at connection of the evacuated tube with the oil tank and T3 inside the oil
tank.
the surroundings, and inside the oil tank is the cooking pan to be
heated up. The parabolic trough is inclined 30
with the horizontal
and it is installed facing the south. The solar cooker is mounted on a thermocouple is ± 0.4
C [44]. The thermocouple sensor is con-
frame with wheels, such that it is possible to move the cooker nected to a reader such that the measured temperature can be
easily. stored and retrieved later.
The solar cooker operates based on the closed loop thermosy- The evacuated tube used is 180 cm long, and the outer and inner
phon action, and utilizes thermal oil as the heat transfer medium. diameters of the tube are 5.8 cm and 5 cm, respectively. The inner
Incident solar radiation is focused by the parabolic trough at the tube is filled with about 2.5 lit of thermal oil. The solar collector has
evacuated tube such that the oil inside the tube is heated. Cold oil been designed and manufactured indoors [35], and more details
inside the oil tank replaces the hot oil inside the evacuated tube due about the design could be found in Ref. [36]. The dimensions and
to buoyancy affect, such that the hot oil rises upwards towards the the different parameters of the parabolic trough are presented in
oil tank and heats the cooking pan. The outer diameter and height Table 1. Polished aluminum sheet has been used as the reflecting
of the oil tank are 0.4 m and 0.6 m, respectively. While the outer surface of the parabolic trough, and the reflectance of the surface
diameter and height of the cooking pan are 0.3 m and 0.4 m, was measured through UV/Visible Spectrophotometer device type
respectively. The thermal oil that has been used is Mobil-Therm 605 T 90þ [37], and it was equal to 0.93. The surface roughness was
[33]. The thermal oil specifications are, density 880 kg/m3, specific measured through the surface roughness tester TR100 device [38]
heat capacity 2.9 kJ/kg$K, kinematic viscosity at 25
C is and it is equal to Rz ¼ 0.26 mm.
3.15  105 m2/s and the boiling temperature is 300
C. The tem-
perature of the oil has been measured at three points as indicated in
Fig. 1 and the simple sketch in Fig. 2. The points are: T1 at the
middle of the evacuated tube, T2 at the connection of the evacuated
tube with the oil tank and T3 inside the oil tank. T2 is the tem- Table 1
perature of the mixing point between the hot oil rising from the Dimensions of the parabolic trough.
evacuated tube and the cold oil coming from the oil tank, i.e. Content Value
cooking area, which is an indication about the average temperature
Parabola length 1.7 m
of the oil inside the collector. The temperature of the oil has been Parabola width 0.6 m
measured using a k-type thermocouple. It was found from the Parabola depth 0.4 m
previous research and kataloge that the uncertainty of a k-type Focal height 0.056 m
Ram angle 139

Fig. 1. Solar cooker and its components. (1) The parabolic trough; (2) the evacuated tube; and (3) the oil tank. T1, T2 and T3 are the temperature measuring points.
 M.S. Abd-Elhady et al. / Renewable Energy 153 (2020) 108e116
2.2. Experimental procedure
Three sets of experiments have been performed. In the first set
of experiments the influence of the metallic wires material on the
performance of solar cooker is examined, while in the second set of
experiments the influence of the number of wires is tested. The
influence of adding nanographene particles on the performance of
the cooker is determined in the Third set of experiments. The two
identical solar cookers are tested at the same time in the sun in each
of the performed experiments. Metallic wires or nanographene
particles are inserted in one cooker, and the other cooker is tested
without any additives, i.e. no wires or graphene particles are added.
So the results of that cooker are used as a reference for comparison.
The metallic wires are inserted inside the evacuated tube together
with the heat transfer fluid, i.e. the thermal oil. The diameter and
length of the wires is constant through all of the performed ex-
periments, and equal to 1 mm and 1.8 m respectively. The wires are
distributed circumferentially at equal distance, and only one wire in
the center. An example of the inserted wires is shown in Fig. 3.
Steel, aluminum and copper wires have been examined, and the
number of wires has been varied between 5, 10 and 15. The wires
are arranged inside the evacuated tube and kept in a fixed position
via a perforated circular plate, i.e. a fixation plate, as shown in Fig. 4.
The diameter of the circular plate is smaller than the inner diameter
of the evacuated tube, to allow for the free flow of the oil inside the
tube. Both cookers are installed in the sun facing south, and the
temperature of the oil, ambient temperature as well as the incident
solar irradiance are measured starting from 8:00 a.m. till 4:00 p.m.
The experiments are performed in Upper Egypt in Sohag (latitude
26
360 5000 N and longitude 31
470 2000 E) during the period from
12 April 2017 to 4 May 2017.
Nanographene particles of average diameter 20 nm has been
prepared and mixed with the thermal oil according to the method
discussed in section 2.2.1. The Particle size measured for nano-
graphene atoms are of width between 80 and 100 nm and thick-
ness from 2 to 5 nm. The concentration of the particles in the
thermal oil has been varied between 0.34  103, 0.67  103 and
1  103 wt%. The prepared graphene nanofluid with thermal oil is
inserted inside the solar cooker and the performance of the cooker
is examined in the same procedure explained above in case of
inserting metallic wires.
2.2.1. Graphene nanofluid preparation
Graphene nanofluid with thermal oil was prepared through the
preparation of graphene nanoplates by Hummers' method [33],
then the graphene nanoplatelets were dispersed in the thermal oil
by sonication. The schematic diagram for the preparation of the
graphene nanofluid with thermal oil is shown in Fig. 5. Firstly, each
carbon atom in the graphite structure is covalently bonded and
arranged hexagonally in a planar stacked ring system. Bonding
Fig. 3. Five aluminum wires of diameter 1 mm passing through a perforated circular
plate.
111
Fig. 4. Wires fixation plate (perforated plate) inside the evacuated tube, and the free
area between them to allow for the flow of oil inside the tube.
between layers is weak bonds and the distance between layers is
0.34 nm, which allows layers of graphite to be easily separated, as
shown in Fig. 5 a. Graphite can be considered as being made from
many layers of graphene, which can be separated to single layers of
graphene by oxidizing the graphite to graphene oxide, Fig. 5 b. The
graphene nanoplatelets are attained by reduction of the graphene
oxide. In the second stage, the graphene nanofluid is produced by
using probe high sonication technique [33] to disperse graphene
nanoplatelets within the thermal oil fluid. An image of the oil and
the graphene nanofluid are shown a Fig. 5 f, and it can be seen that
the presence of the nanographene particles has changed the oil
from being transparent to a dark and a non-transparent substance.
3. Experimental results and discussion
3.1. First set of experiments; steel, aluminum and copper wires (no.
of wires 5)
The influence of the material of the inserted wires is examined
in this set of experiment, such that steel, aluminum and copper
wires are examined. Three experiments have been performed on
three consecutive days, and in each day a different material is
tested. The two developed solar cookers are tested at the same time
and place, such that one cooker is with wires and the other is
without wires. The temperature of the oil has been measured at the
three points, as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, and the temperature of
oil at the tip of the evacuated tube, i.e. T2, is presented in Fig. 6. It
has been mentioned that T2 represents the average temperature
inside the evacuated tube, since it is a mixing point between the hot
oil coming from the evacuated tube and the relatively cold oil inside
the cooking pan, and therefore T2 is the only temperature to be
presented for the sake of simplicity and clarity. The temperature of
the oil in the solar cooker that contains no wires is taken as the
reference of improvement. It can be seen from Fig. 6 a that the
temperature of the oil in case of using steel wires is very close to the
no wire case, i.e. (the reference), which indicates that using steel
wires is useless. While, the temperature of the oil in case of using
aluminum wires is lower than the reference, as shown in Fig. 6 b,
which indicates the negative effect of using aluminum wires.
However, the temperature of the oil has increased above the
reference in case of using copper wires, as shown in Fig. 6 c.
The percentage increase in temperature above the reference
measurements is shown in Fig. 7, and the average percentage in-
crease in temperature from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. is shown in Fig. 7. The
percentage increase in temperature, DT%, is calculated based on,
Twires  Tref :
DT% ¼  100; (1)
Tref :
Where Twires is the temperature of the oil in case of inserting wires
inside the evacuated tube, and Tref. is the temperature of the oil in
case of non inserted wires. It can be seen From Fig. 7 that the
average percentage increase in the oil temperature in case of using
112 M.S. Abd-Elhady et al. / Renewable Energy 153 (2020) 108e116
Fig. 5. Schematic diagrams of graphene preparation from graphite and suspension in thermal oil.
Fig. 6. Temperature of the oil at the tip of the evacuated tube in case of not using
(Tref.) and using (Twire) (a) steel wires, (b) aluminum wires, and (c) copper wires.
copper wires is 6.9%, 10% in case of aluminum wires and zero in
case of steel wires. It can be concluded from the performed
experiment that adding copper wires improves the rate of heat
transfer to the thermal oil compared to utilizing aluminum or steel
wires [17].
Fig. 7. increase in the oil temperature, DT%, above the reference cooker, in case of using
copper, steel and aluminum wires.
The improvement in the thermal performance of the cooker due
to utilizing copper wires compared to aluminum and steel wires
can be attributed to the large thermal conductivity of copper
compared to aluminum and steel. The physical properties of cop-
per, steel and aluminum are shown in Table 2. The thermal con-
ductivity, k, of copper is equal to 401 W/m.K, which is greater than
that of steel (80.1 W/m.K), and aluminum (237 W/m.K). Another
important parameter that can explain the difference in thermal
performance between the different wires is the thermal diffusivity
of the material used. The thermal diffusivity, a [17] in heat transfer
analysis is the thermal conductivity divided by density and specific
heat capacity at constant pressure. It measures the rate of heat
transfer of material from the hot end to the cold end, and defined as
how quickly a material can carry heat away from a hot source, and it
is equal to,
 M.S. Abd-Elhady et al. / Renewable Energy 153 (2020) 108e116 113

Table 2
Physical properties of steel, aluminum and copper [17].

Thermal conductivity K W/m.K Density r kg/m3 Heat capacity cp ¼ kJ/kg Thermal diffusivity a ¼ k/r.cp m2/s Static friction coef ms

Steel 80.2 7800 0.45 22.85  106 0.16

Aluminum 237 2700 0.902 97.31  106 0.3
Copper 401 8960 0.386 116  106 0.08

performance of the solar cooker is examined in this set of experi-

k
a¼ (2) ments. Only copper wires are tested, and the number of wires has
rcp been varied between 5, 10 and 15 wires. The temperature of the oil
at the tip of the evacuated tube is presented in Fig. 8, and that is in
Where r the density, and cp is the heat capacity. But the thermal case of using 5, 10 and 15 copper wires. Also, the outside temper-
conductivity of a material is a measure of its ability to conduct heat. ature has been presented in Fig. 8. The diameter and length of the
Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate in materials of low thermal copper wires is the same as in the previous set of experiments, i.e.
conductivity than in materials of high thermal conductivity. The 1 mm and 1.8 m, respectively. The temperature of the oil in the
thermal diffusivity of copper is 116  106 m2/s, as shown in cooker with wires is always greater than the reference cooker, in
Table 2, which is greater than that of steel and aluminum, which are case of using 5 and 10 wires, as can be seen in Fig. 8 a and Fig. 8 b.
equal to 22.85  106 m2/s and 97.31  106 m2/s, respectively. It The difference in temperatures between the cooker with wires and
can be concluded that the large thermal conductivity and diffu-
sivity of copper can explain the improvement in the thermal per-
formance of the cooker due to utilizing copper wires compared to
aluminum and steel wires. However, neither the thermal conduc-
tivity nor the thermal diffusivity can explain the difference in
performance between the aluminum and steel wires, because the
thermal conductivity and diffusivity of the aluminum is much
higher than that of steel but the thermal performance in case of
using aluminum is lower than that of steel. The thermal oil inside
the evacuated tube is heated by the incident solar radiation, and its
temperature becomes higher than the oil inside the cooking pan,
such that a buoyancy affect is observed. Natural convection cur-
rents are governed by Grashof number [17], which is ratio between
the buoyancy force to the viscous force and equal to,

Buouancy Force g b DT V
Gr ¼ ¼ (3)
Viscous Force y2
Where b is the volumetric expansion coefficient, V is the volume,
DT is the temperature difference and y is the kinematic viscosity. If
the buoyancy force acting on the thermal oil inside the evacuated
tube is greater than frictional/viscous force resisting its motion,
then convectional currents occur and the hot oil rises upwards
towards the cooking pan and heats the pan. The viscous and fric-
tional forces acting on the thermal oil is a function of the inserted
wires. The static coefficient of friction of the aluminum wires is 0.3,
as shown in Table 2, which is approximately two times that of steel,
i.e. 0.16, and four times that of copper, i.e. 0.08. It can be concluded
that the resistance of the aluminum wires to the natural convection
currents is more than that of steel and copper wires, due to its large
coefficient of friction, which have resulted in degradation of the
thermal performance of the cooker compared to the cooker with
steel or copper wires.
It can be concluded from the performed experiment that
inserting steel or aluminum wires is not a good option, i.e. it will not
assist natural convection currents because of its large coefficient of
friction, and the best option is inserting copper wires because of its
high thermal diffusivity and low friction coefficient, such that both
parameters assist heat transfer by natural convection. The influence
of the number of copper wires is examined in the next set of ex-
periments, as a step to find out the ideal number of wires.

3.2. Second set of experiments; copper wires (no of wires 5, 10 and

15)
Fig. 8. Temperature of the oil at the tip of the evacuated tube incase of no wires (Tref.)
The influence of the number of wires on the thermal and using copper wires (Twire) of (a) 5 wires, (b) 10 wires and (c) 15 wires.
114 M.S. Abd-Elhady et al. / Renewable Energy 153 (2020) 108e116

the reference cooker is small in case of 5 wires and that difference

increases as the number of inserted wires increases to 10 wires,
which indicates the improvement in performance with the number
of wires. However, increasing the number of wires to 15 wires has
decreased the thermal performance of the cooker, such that the
temperature of the oil in the reference cooker is larger than or equal
to the temperature of oil in the cooker with wires, as can be seen in
Fig. 8 c.
Oil temperature, DT% avg above the reference cooker in case of
inserting 5, 10 and 15 copper wires. The percentage increase in the
oil temperature is calculated based on Eq. (1), and based on that the
average percentage increase in the oil temperature over the time
interval from 10 a.m.: 2 p.m. is calculated. It can be observed that
the average percentage increase in the oil temperature in case of
using 5 copper wires approximately 6.9%, and that percentage has
increased nearly to 25.8% in case of 10 wires and then drops to 3.1%
in case of 15 wires. It can be concluded that the ideal number of
copper wires that can be inserted is 10 wires, such that below and
above that number of wires the performance decreases.
Inserting copper wires inside the evacuated tube of a solar
cooker improves the overall heat transfer coefficient by natural
convection inside the tube, which results an increasing the overall
temperature of the oil inside the tube and subsequently the tem-
perature difference between the oil inside the evacuated tube and
the cooking pan. The buoyancy force acting on the oil, which is the
prime mover of the convectional currents, is a function of the oil
temperature difference. It can be concluded that increasing the
number of wires increases the buoyancy forces as well as the
viscous and frictional forces acting on the oil inside the evacuated
tube. This leads to increasing Grashof number. The effect of buoy-
ancy parameter is highly significant in the laminar flow within the
boundary layer formed on a vertically evacuated tube [39]. Below a
certain number of wires, which will be called the critical number of
wires, the buoyancy force is larger than the viscous force that re-
sults in more convective currents and heat transfer. Above that
critical number of wires, the viscous force becomes comparable to
the buoyancy force, which results in suppressing the convectional
currents and deteriorating the rate of heat transfer. There are a
critical number of wires that can be inserted at which the thermal
Fig. 9. Temperature of the oil at the tip of the evacuated tube in case of no adds (Tref.)
performance of the cooker is the best. This critical value could be a and adding nanographene particles in the thermal oil.
function of many parameters, e.g. the inserted wires material and
diameter, the diameter of the evacuated tube and the type of
thermal oil used. Further research is performed to model numeri- or equal to the temperature of oil in the cooker with particles
cally the heat transfer across an evacuated that is filled with oil and [24,31,40,42], as can be seen in Fig. 9b and c.
metallic wires, as a step to find the critical number and diameter of The percentage increase in the oil temperature is calculated
wires that should be used. based on Eq. (1), and based on that the average percentage increase
in the oil temperature over the time interval 10 a.m.: 2 p.m. is
3.3. Third set of experiments; nanographene particles calculated. It is observed that the average percentage increase in
the oil temperature approximately 8.2% in case of graphene con-
The influence of adding nanographene particles on the thermal centration of 0.34  103 wt%, and that percentage drops nearly
performance of the cooker is examined in this set of experiments. to 1.3% and 9.3%, in case of concentrations of 0.67  103 and
Three experiments have been performed such that the concentra- 1  103 wt%, respectively. It can be inferred that the average per-
tion of the nano particles in the thermal oil has been varied be- centage increase in the oil temperature decreases with the con-
tween 0.34  103, 0.67  103 and 1  103 wt%. The temperature centration of the nanographene particles. The average percentage
of the oil at the tip of the evacuated tube for the performed ex- increase in the oil temperature in case of inserting 10 copper wires
periments is presented in Fig. 9, as well as the outside temperature. approximately 25.8% as have been found from the performed ex-
It can be seen that the temperature of the oil in the reference cooker periments. It can be concluded from the performed experiments
is a bit lower than the temperature of the oil in the cooker with that the thermal performance of the solar cooker decreases with
nanographene particles of concentration of 0.34  103 wt%, as can the concentration of the nanographene particles greater than
be seen in Fig. 9 a, which indicates that there is a marginal 0.34  10-3 wt%, and adding nano particles to the heat transfer
improvement in the thermal performance of the cooker due to the medium, i.e. thermal oil, don't assist natural convection currents
addition of the nano particles [22. 23, 32]. However, increasing the [23,32]. A Transmission Electron Microscopic (TEM) picture of a
concentration of the nano particles to 0.67  103 and 1  103 wt small droplet of oil mixed with the nanograhene platelets is pre-
% has deteriorated the performance of the cooker such that the sented in Fig. 10. The black color is the nanographene, while the
temperature of the oil in the reference cooker becomes larger than dark gray color is the oil. It can be seen that the oil and the
 M.S. Abd-Elhady et al. / Renewable Energy 153 (2020) 108e116
Fig. 10. TEM picture of a small droplet of oil mixed with the nanograhene platelets, the black color is the nanographene, while the dark gray color is the oil.
nanographene are very well mixed together, which forms a new
mixture that has different physical properties than the original oil
itself. The viscosity of the thermal oil has been measured as a
function of temperature and concentration of the nanograhene,
and the results are shown in Fig. 11. The viscosity has been
measured using the Anton Paar MCR-301 rheometer. It can be seen
that the viscosity of the thermal oil increases with the concentra-
tion of the nanographene particles. It can be noted that deteriora-
tion in the thermal performance of the solar cooker due to the
addition of the nano particles is due to increase in the viscosity of
the oil, which does not assist the formation of natural convection
currents and consequently heat transfer by natural convection.
4. Conclusions
It can be concluded from the performed experiments that;
1 Inserting copper wires in the evacuated tubes of solar collectors
assists heat transfer by natural convection because of the high
thermal diffusivity and low friction coefficient of copper, such
that it improves the thermal performance of the cooker [17].
2 Inserting steel or aluminum wires inside the evacuated tubes of
solar collectors does not assist natural convection currents,
because of the low thermal diffusivity and relatively large fric-
tion coefficient of these materials, which can results in deteri-
orating the thermal performance of the cooker
3 There are a critical number of wires, 10 wires that can be
inserted inside the evacuated tube of solar cookers, such that
below or above that critical number the thermal performance
deteriorates.
4 Adding nano graphene particles to thermal oil increases the
viscosity of the oil approximately 35%, which does not assist the
Fig. 11. Viscosity of the thermal oil as a function of temperature and graphene
concentration.
115
formation of natural convection currents and consequently heat
transfer by natural convection [22.23,32,40,45].
5 Adding nano graphene particles contents up to 0.34  10-3 wt%
to the heat transfer medium of solar cookers, i.e. thermal oil
increases the heat transfer rate, but increases the nano graphene
particles content up to this percent deteriorates the perfor-
mance of the cooker [23,32,40,42].
6 Increasing the value of Grashof number or any buoyancy related
parameter decide an increase in the wall temperature and this
makes the bonds between the fluid to become weaker, strength
of the internal friction to decrease, the grav-ity to becomes
stronger enough [39].
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Seif Al Nasr Ahmed Abd Alghany, M. Sc., Mechanical
Engineering (Power and Energy), Egypt, Al- Minia Uni-
versity, Faculty of Engineering, 1999. Ph.D in Mechanical
Engineering (power and Energy), Egypt, Al Minia Univer-
sity, Faculty of Engineering, 2002. Lecture in Faculty of
Engineering, Beni-Suef University