Simulation model of the thermal performance of a natural convection-type solar tunnel dryer

✍ Scribed by H. P. Garg; Rakesh Kumar; G. Datta

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 169 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0363-907X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-114x(19981025)22:13<1165::aid-er442>3.0.co;2-8

✦ Synopsis

The basic objective of this paper is to develop a comprehensive simulation model of the thermal performance of solar tunnel dryer. The model is useful in system design as it is sensitive to the design parameters of air collector and dryer (like, length, radius, tunnel tilt, etc.). It is also useful in determining the drying behaviour of high-moisture products (vegetables, fruits, etc.) as well as low-moisture products (barely, wheat, etc.). The performance of the dryer has been estimated for a natural convection mode flow. A transient one-dimensional model was developed for the dryer and the numerical calculations were made for the climate of Delhi. It is observed that a large quantity of barley about 2135 kg can be dried in this dryer within two days of operation upto an equilibrium moisture content.