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Communities · Engineering · early 2010s · Archive

Starting with the fuel and the smoke

Char Cube cookstove

An undergraduate cookstove project exploring household fuel use and combustion exposure in Sri Lanka.

Coloured marker sketch of the stove in section: a fuel chute marked FUEL feeding a combustion chamber, with a water jacket and a bowl on topSheet-metal stove prototype on a workbench: a tapered steel hopper above a slotted fuel tray, inside a perforated angle-iron frame
Fig. 1 — Section sketch and the assembled sheet-metal prototype, Rensselaer design studio, spring 2012. Own sketch and studio photograph, recovered from the 2014 portfolio site.
Role
Student designer
Years
early 2010s
Project status
Archive
Categories
Communities · Engineering
Sources
I08

04Note

In this undergraduate studio project, I worked on a cookstove concept for Sri Lanka. The brief brought together local fuel, household exposure to smoke, and the geometry of the stove. We developed and evaluated prototypes in the studio. [I08]

The stove was not deployed in the field, and we did not measure a reduction in carbon-monoxide exposure. The project is part of my early design work because it started with the setting in which an object would be used: the sketches, form studies and studio prototype below.

Pencil and marker sketch of a tall stove body with a green bowl set into the top and a cross-hatched grate near the base
Fig. 2 — Early elevation sketch: the cooking bowl set into the stove body. Own sketch, 2012.
A rough lilac clay model of a cylindrical stove with an arched fuel opening at its base, on a wooden workbench
Fig. 3 — Clay form study, single chamber. Studio photograph, 2012.
A lilac clay model with two openings side by side, one for fuel and one for the pot, on a workbench
Fig. 4 — Clay form study, two openings: fuel beside the pot. Studio photograph, 2012.
A square frame bolted together from perforated steel angle, being assembled on a workbench
Fig. 5 — Frame in perforated angle. Studio photograph, 2012.
Hands holding a folded sheet-metal hopper, a tapered four-sided funnel, beside a machine in the shop
Fig. 6 — The folded hopper. Studio photograph, 2012.
Galvanised sheet-metal walls standing on a perforated steel base frame with two cross tubes
Fig. 7 — Body panels on the base frame. Studio photograph, 2012.
CAD render of the stove as a grey box with a chimney, labelled: water spigot, cooking surface, water jacket and ventilation, fuel tray
Fig. 8 — CAD model of the final layout: cooking surface, water jacket and ventilation, fuel tray and water spigot. Own render, 2012.

References & documentation

  1. 1. I08
    `portfolio_master_inventory_2026-10-21_revised.md` — Working inventory, earlier chat reconstruction and unverified legacy projectsfirst-party

    Editorial research, no independent verification