Heat Transfer Experimental Apparatus
White Paper: [link]
My Contributions:
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CAD design of heating methods (SolidWorks)
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FEA simulation of heat transfer (SolidWorks, COMSOL)
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Power electronics circuitry and simulation (Spice)
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Contributed to writing the paper
Cooking efficiency affects the cost of cooking, including time to cook, energy cost, and health risks of the cook. This work evaluates the theoretical efficiency of four different cooking methods and details the design of a hardware workstation that can experimentally measure these efficiencies. The four heat transfer methods investigated in this study are conduction, radiation, induction, and Joule heating. The theoretical analysis shows that Joule heating is the most efficient cooking method, though radiation can have a similar efficiency if used with a reflector. These results can inform future cooking system designs and provide insight into the added costs of commonly used cooking methods.
Conduction FEA
Radiation FEA
Induction FEA
Joule FEA
The four testing methods are each briefly described as follows: Conduction heating consists of directly contacting the test material with the heating element, which allows for direct heat flow from the heating element to the test material. Radiation heating consists of heating up a coil at a distance from the test material, which then radiates out heat for the test material to absorb. Induction heating consists of running an electrical current through a coil around the material, generating heat in the material itself. Since the food is not a ferromagnetic material, an iron wire, which is instead the heated element, is inserted through the center of the sample. Joule heating consists of running an electrical current directly through the material, such that the material’s inherent resistance causes heat generation. To gain a quantitative understanding of each heat transfer cooking method, each method is simulated over 1500 seconds of heating using finite element analysis in Solidworks and COMSOL. The heating progress of an experimental inductive heating test is reported via impedance measurement.
Inductive heating experimental test
Electronics planning & simulation
Inductive heating inductance, impedance, and phase
