Sun Buckets
Team Members Heading link
- Christian Mactal
- Mateusz Nawrot
- Brandon Villanueva
Advisor: Atif Yardimici, PhD
Sponsor: Matthew Alonso, PhD
Project Description Heading link
The main purpose of this work is to provide a cooking alternative without the use of fuel resources while maintaining cultural norms and cooking traditions. Over 3 billion people worldwide cook with wood, charcoal, or animal dung, which results in open fires and emissions. As a consequence, prolonged exposure to the emission output has contributed to air pollution and more than 4 million premature deaths. To counter this global issue, the use of solar energy is a solution that can provide a safe cooking resource while still respecting all cultures. Our project sponsor, Matthew Alonso, PhD is one of the founders of the Sun Buckets company, which produces portable cooking units that store and use solar thermal energy. The objectives of the Sun Buckets senior design project are: improving the device by enhancing the insulation performance, reducing cost, measuring the temperature and pressure of the inner vessel. Currently, the most recent Sun Bucket model uses Superwool material where the insulation makes the outer shell temperature to be 42°C in 25°C ambient temperature indoors. To improve the existing insulation, the target temperature for the outer shell was to be improved to 35°C or less. CAD files were subjected to ANSYS Workbench simulations to model how each material of interest behaved and reacted when subjected to boundary conditions. After rigorous testing, cork turned out to be the best material to use with results yielding 30°C. To change/improve temperature measurement, many different techniques were taken into consideration. Calculating the pressure was the last objective, which would determine the highest pressure before the vessel inside the Sun Buckets deforms. Boundary conditions were taken into consideration in ANSYS static structural simulations. Both worst case and best case scenarios for convection were done as well as 400°C for the charge of the vessel.
See supporting documentation in the team’s Box drive.