{center}
\\

h2. Concentrated Cooker Subteam
{center}\\

{center}
\\

h3. Members: Margaret Ding, Catherine Hanna and Scott Johnson
{center}
This  past semester, the concentrated cooker sub-team has spent much of it's  time researching past successful parabolic cookers and both designing  and constructing its own concentrated cooker. Past teams' attempts at  building non-conventional box-cookers have been relatively unsuccessful.  Therefore, our team's goal was to build a parabolic cooker that  effectively reached high temperatures of 250 degrees Celsius needed to  fry tortillas (a staple food in Nicaragua).\\

We used a "petal" approach to build the reflector. We cut multiple  petals into a flat aluminum metal sheet, curved each petal upward and  overlapped the edges to form a parabolic surface. Each petal was adhered  together using reflective tape. After the paraboloid was completed, a  wooden framing system was built to support the reflector. The framework  was designed so that it could tilt the parabolic cooker to directly face  the sun at any angle in the sky. In addition, the support system is  mobilized on wheels so that it can rotate a full 360 degrees.\\

{center}
\\

     
{center}\\ \\ \\

{center}
\\

Parabolic Reflector and Frame      
{center}\\ \\

{center}
\\ \\
{center}\\ \\

{center}
Reflector Base-Support System
{center}\\

{center}
\\ \\

When we tested our system, the wooden framework had not been  constructed. Therefore, our experimental setup involved a propped  wheelbarrow that served as a support for the reflector. Two tripods were  used to support a wooden rod that was placed directly across the  reflector. Attached to the rod with black duct tape was a small metal  corner that could easily absorb heat, and attached to this metal piece  was a thermal couple used to record temperatures. This metal piece and  thermal couples were placed directly at the paraboloid's focal point  (which was measured to be approximately 10 inches).
{center}\\

{center}
\\ \\
{center}\\

{center}
Reflector Sitting on Wheelbarrow
{center}\\

{center}

{center}\\

{center}
Thermocouple Attached to Metal Plate
{center}
The  testing showed very promising results, as the peak temperature  (achieved within minutes) was 145 degrees Celsius. However, testing was  not completely conclusive since halfway through testing, the tape  holding the black metal piece to the wooden rod melted. Hence, the  thermal couple fell out of the reflector's focal point and began reading  ambient air temperatures instead.

{center}

{center}\\

{center}
Data from Most Successful Testing
{center}
Given  the portion of the successful data that we have, we can conclude that  our prototype has definite potential to reach temperatures of 250  Celsius. The temperature at the focal point was steadily increasing at  the time of failure due to the melted tape. Before failure had occurred,  the linear trend in data estimates that a temperature reading of 250  Celsius may have occurred after approximately 25 minutes, and may even  occur faster in non-windy, winter conditions.\\

This past semester allotted no time to build the cooking surface upon  which a pot can be placed. Next semester's work on this project should  prioritize this task along with another attempt at successful testing.\\

h4. For More Information:\\
* [Final Report|download/attachments/130291374/Solar_Lovin%27_Final_Report.pdf?version=1&modificationDate=1305037455000]