THEORY DRIVEN DESIGN AND REAL PROTOTYPING OF BIOMASS PYROLITIC STOVE

This article introduces a design approach integrating early design phase and model based engineering in order to develop innovative biomass gasifier system for rural communities in Africa. The need for such a systemic perspective is imposed by the imbrication of technical, ecological and cultural issues that cannot be ignored while designing new technology. The article proposes an integrated generic design theory approaches to discover and rank by order of importance system's variables and to single out most desired design parameters. A pre-design user requirement assessment was carried out to identify detailed stove's functions. Causal-ordering diagrams sketched for system's modelling. System functions were described graphically and synthesized through simple linear algebraic matrices. Contradictions in system functions were solved using Theory of Inventive Thinking (TRIZ 40). And system's optimization was done through simple Taguchi experimentation method. A two level L8 degree of freedom Taguchi table was used in the experimentation and optimization of the pyrolitic stove. The design approach was exemplified using the case of the "AKIBA" biomass stove.