An Experimental Investigation on Thermal Comfort of Community Kitchen

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Date
2021
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MPUAT, Udaipur
Abstract
The present study entitled “an experimental investigation on thermal comfort of community kitchen” was undertaken to study the thermal performance of community cook stove, to assess thermographic behaviour of cook stove in actual use and to analyse indoor air quality parameters. All these data were helpful in examining the thermal comfort of community kitchen. A basic preliminary survey was conducted to study the problems faced by the kitchen workers and it was conducted in the community kitchens of Udaipur city. Interview method was selected for data collection and the samples were selected randomly. An experimental investigation was conducted by experimenting the Water Boiling Test on the newly designed Superpower Cookstove by the Renewable Energy Engineering department of College of Technology and Engineering, MPUAT, Udaipur. Frequency, Percentage, Average and Karl Pearson Correlation Coefficient test were used for the analysis of data. The performance of the improved cookstove was analysed by conducting Water Boiling Test was carried out with Prosopis juliflora (Babul wood) having calorific value of 12MJ/Kg. Indoor Air Quality, Relative Humidity, noise level, Air Temperature and Dew Point was measured by using IAQ Monitor, Hygrometer, Sound Monitor, Fluke Thermographic Camera respectively. For analysing thermographic behaviour different temperatures of stove wall, floor, fuel chamber, ash chamber, walls and human body temperature etc were measured using Infrared Thermographic camera during combustion process. Result of the survey shows that majority of the community kitchen worker were uses the Chulha, LPG, and Tandoor for the cooking. The major problems faced by the respondents during cooking were health problems (like heat stroke, Irritation in eyes, fatigue due to long standing hours, MSD etc), smoke and pollution problem and most importantly fuel related problems. Most of the kitchens do not have the chimney. It was noted from the survey that the temperature to which these people were exposed was too high, which in the long-term causes damage to the workers’ health. Result of the experimental study shows that the average thermal efficiency of improved cookstove with Babul wood was found to be 33.41% and the average power output rating of cookstove was resulted as 1.46 kW. The average CO (Carbon Monoxide) produced during combustion was presented as 19.06 ppm. The average CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) produced during WBT was calculated as 878.69 ppm. The average Total Particulate Matter (PM2.5) was assessed as 3.04 mg/m3. Thermal Comfort was analysed by ‘CBE Thermal Comfort Tool’ using ASHRAE-55 standard and the physical measurements revealed that there is a large range of kitchens environments and confirmed that occupants was exposed to a ‘slightly warm-to-hot’ environment. The measured ranges of activities and temperatures for sometimes were outside the range recommended by ASHRAE 55 standard. The study showed that the predicted mean vote/percentage people dissatisfied (PMV/PPD) index is not directly appropriate for all thermal conditions in commercial kitchens. The average PMV value was found out for the cold start was 2.49 and for the hot start it was 3.98. And the PPD was evaluated for the cold start and hot start as 86.97% and 97.57% respectively. According to the data analysed, it could be clearly stated that body temperature was correlated with the air temperature and mean radiant temperature; it means that the body temperature increases along with air temperature and mean radiant temperature. In this positive and highly correlation coefficient was found out at 5% level of significance. Relative humidity, dew point, CO, CO2 and PM 2.5 show both negative and positive correlation because their value varies along with time. PMV and PPD were positive and highly correlated with each other.
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An Experimental Investigation on Thermal Comfort of Community Kitchen
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Citation
Kohli N. and Rathore H.
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