Over half of the world's population, approximately 3 billion people, rely on biomass fuels (wood, charcoal, dung, and agricultural residues) and liquid fuels such as kerosene in cook stoves to meet basic needs for cooking and heating. Most cook stoves in use operate indoors without sufficient ventilation, have low efficiencies, and produce products of incomplete combustion. Indoor air pollution of toxic gases and soot aerosols from household energy use in developing countries cause health problems for families, disproportionately affects women and children, and in aggregate, has significant effects on public health. Additionally, aggregate emissions of black carbon and greenhouse gases from the combustion of household fuels in cook stoves adversely affect the environment and pose a serious threat to global climate change.

This work looks at two components of household energy use in developing countries: 1) cook stove technology, and 2) assessing indoor concentrations of pollutants to determine personal exposure for public health. In this dissertation, the formulation of two computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models of the heat transfer, buoyant turbulent fluid flow, and combustion within a cook stove is described. Then, a model for indoor concentrations of pollutants in a room is described, and the model is applied to questions relevant to indoor air pollution and public health.