2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

The International Conference on “Recent Developments in Science, Engineering & Technology” (REDSET-2015) was organized by G.D Goneka University, Gurgaon on 30th-31st October 2015. The conference was conducted in association with University of Arkansas, IETE and CSI (student chapter). The theme of the conference was “Scientific and Technological Innovations for Sustainable Development”. The participants included academicians, scientist, researchers, industrialists, technocrats and government representatives. Mr. Vikrant Yadav, Asst. Professor Mechanical Engineering Department from Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon presented his paper titled “Solar cooker with PCM unit based on parabolic trough collector with vacuum tube heat pipe” at the conference. Total 16 sessions were conducted at the conference where technical papers were presented by the delegates.

The conference was inaugurated and the welcome was delivered by Prof. (Dr.) Deependra K Jha, Chairperson, REDSET 2015 and Prof. (Dr.) Raj Singh, Vice Chancellor, GD Goenka University. Dr. Jha said that the conference aimed to facilitate and act as a forum for propagation of original research results, ideas and practical experiences which focus on both theory and practices. The keynote speakers were:

1. Dr. Dinesh Kumar Paliwal, OSD, Rashtriya Ucchtar Siksha Abhiyan, MHRD, Govt. of India,

2. Mr. Pradyumn Lavania, Director, Cloud and Service Providers for EMC India & SAARC

3. Mr. Rajdeep Sahrawat, Head of International Business & Strategic Initiatives at Tata Consultancy Services.

4. Dr. Rathnasree , Director of Nehru Planetarium, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library .

On 31st October 2015 Mr. Vikrant Yadav presented his paper “Solar cooker with PCM unit based on parabolic trough collector with vacuum tube heat pipe”. It was presented in technical session 12. The session was chaired by Dr. Bheem Singh, Director, Echelon Institute of Technology. In his paper he explained the experimental setup, vacuum tube heat pipe was used as receiver and solar radiations were focused on it. The available solar heat at receiver was transferred to the solar cooker by natural circulation (thermosiphon) of heat transfer fluid. Water was used as heat transfer fluid. Commercial grade acetamide was used as latent heat storage material in solar cooker. In day time, the transfer of solar heat was a twofold process, first the solar heat from the receiver was transferred to an intermediate latent heat storage unit and the energy was subsequently transferred from the storage unit to the cooking vessel. In evening time, this stored energy was used to cook the food.

The Keywords of his paper were Thermal performance, Parabolic trough collector, Solar cooker, Phase change material, Vacuum tube heat pipe.

The main objective of this experimental setup was to cook food in day time as well as in the evening time. The performance of the solar cooker was studied under different operating conditions at NIT Kurukshetra, India. The experiments were conducted during the month of October 2014. Everyday, solar collector was exposed to solar radiation at 8:30hr and readings were taken from 09:00hr at an every interval of 30 minutes. The parabolic trough collector faced towards the south and it was tracked once in a day in the morning on its one axis.

The experimental setup was parabolic trough collector having vacuum tube heat pipe is connected with solar cooker through header and connecting pipes. The inlet and outlet of the solar cooker are connected with header through connecting pipes. During sunshine hours solar radiations which are falling on the parabolic reflector, made to focus on receiver i.e. vacuum tube heat pipe. This available energy at the receiver is transferred to the heat transfer fluid. The heat transfer fluid is circulated through the header, connecting pipes and outer space of cooker. Heat transfer fluid which is coming from the bottom end of the solar cooker receives heat after passing through the header and reaches to the upper end of the solar cooker. This whole process is carried out by thermosiphon phenomenon.

During this process heat transfer fluid transfers heat to the latent heat storage unit. The latent heat storage unit stores and transfer heat to the cooking vessel. During the day time the heat transfer is a two-fold process, heat is first transferred and stored in intermediate storage unit and further it is transferred to the cooking vessel for cooking purpose. During off sunshine hours, stored energy of PCM is utilized to cook food in late evening.

The conclusions drawn in the paper by Mr. Yadav were:

1. The setup used shall cook food successfully twice in a day during Indian autumn season.

2. For different cases, the rate of evening cooking was found to be approximately 1.75 times faster as compared to noon cooking.

3. Vacuum tube heat pipe quickly transfer the available heat at the receiver to the HTF.

The work of Mr. Yadav was found highly promising and the attendees, including both academics and industrials, gave good feedbacks about the work.

The conference ended with a valedictory session. The best papers of the event were awarded during the closing ceremony. Mr. Sudeep Sharma, Organizing Secretary concluded the event with a vote of thanks.