Experimental study of performance of a prototype natural convection solar dryer

Document Type : Scientific Article

Author

Masters, Mechanical Engineering, Technical and Vocational Training Organization, Azadshar, Iran

Abstract

The aim of this project is to build a prototype of solar dryer with natural convection and to study thermal performance with respect to the amount of solar radiation in different climatic conditions, variation of collector area and collector angle and orientation of solar dryer. In this sample, it is possible to manually rotate the device 360 degrees with the help of the wheels. In order to increase the thermal efficiency of solar drying due to climate and seasons change, the ability to change the collector angle has been created by changing the height of the between the hinge and collector boxes and boxes of food, While this feature is not found in samples fabricated past. In this study, the optimal collector angle positioned to the south was observed 60 to 70 degrees. By using the energy equation it was found that increasing the collector area increases the amount of energy absorbed by the collector. This increase was also observed experimentally. But the amount of energy predicted by energy equation with experimental values differs. This is due to the effect of collector area on the inlet temperature of the working fluid and thermal lost coefficient.

Keywords


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