Drying chamber performance of V-groove forced convective solar dryer

The performance of the drying chamber of a solar assisted drying system was analyzed. The solar assisted drying system consists of drying chamber, V-groove collector of 13.8 mð area, the auxiliary heater and two variable speed centrifugal fans. K-type thermocouples were used for temperature measurement, while solar radiation was measured by Eppley Pyranometer. Drying temperature is considered the most important factor in the drying operation. The accuracy of the temperature measurement is important in this analysis. The procedure for calculating the heat losses from drying chamber may be quite complex and often difficult to accurately determine the numerous variables. In this work standard equations under steady state condition were used to calculate the drying chamber efficiency and the heat losses from the chamber room.

The study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the drying chamber of the forced convective solar assisted drying system. The consideration should be given to the materials that used for the structure of the drying chamber. The efficiency of the system is increased if the drying chamber is well constructed and provided with good insulation. In this paper the equations for determining the changes of temperature in drying chamber are based on heat transfer analysis. These expressions are founded on the method of the thermal effectiveness and the number of transfer units. These are general equations for the drying chamber of the solar drying system.