Optical performance analysis of the Copenhagen solar cooker with COMSOL Multiphysics

Abstract

The Copenhagen solar cooker is a compact, panel-type design with four flexible reflective panels to redirect solar radiation onto a cooking pot. The geometric configuration of the panels is adjustable, depending on the sun elevation angle. Despite the simplicity of the concept, the resulting curved reflector geometries do not align with any analytical surface, posing a modeling challenge. This work introduces an innovative approach: COMSOL Multiphysics structural mechanics simulation is used to emulate the manual folding process of the reflector panels, in order to create accurate geometric models of the two most used configurations: Ninety and Flower. Then, the COMSOL ray optics module is used to characterize the optical performance of the generated Copenhagen solar cooker models. A large number of studies are presented, of interest both to the practical user who wants to optimize the use of their Copenhagen cooker and to the designer looking for future optimizations. This is the first work in scientific literature that analyzes the optical system of the Copenhagen solar cooker.