Design, Fabrication and Testing of a Rectangular Heating Surface Pattern Fins to Improve Heat Transfer in Cooking Pots

In the present day, most people use liquified petroleum gas as their fuel source for cooking. In the process of cooking, large amount of energy is wasted. Furthermore, conventional cooking pot having flat heating surface directs the flame at the side and the lid. This phenomenon decreases the efficiency of a conventional cooking pot. To enhance the heat transfer at the heating surface of the cooking pot, adding surface pattern fins are used. By adding surface pattern fins, the heating surface area will be larger compared to the flat surface of convention cooking pot and the flow of heat will be controlled. In this research, the thermal efficiency and time to reach 100 degrees Celsius of cooking pots equipped with different modified dimensions of rectangular heating surface pattern fins were investigated through the water-boiling test. The improved cooking pots were fabricated using aluminum materials. The water-boiling test was conducted with 1 liter of water in the pot at the atmospheric pressure by using Liquified petroleum gas as fuel. The testing was done by observing the water temperature, fuel consumption and surface temperature using thermal camera and digital thermometer until the water temperature reaches 100 degrees Celsius. The results obtained from the modified cooking pots were compared with conventional cooking pot. It is found that from the results, the model E has highest thermal efficiency of 54.74% for 5:02.74 minutes of heating time and the lowest thermal efficiency of 50.92% for 5:25.57 minutes of heating time was obtained from model F.