SIMULATION OF THE AIRFLOW INSIDE A HYBRID DRYER

Food is the basic comfort and necessity of living beings. The major problem faced by the mankind is the balance of food production and consumption. About 25% of the world food production is lost between the producer and the consumer. The world's food problem could be appeased reducing the food losses that occur mainly due to failures on the production storage and transportation. The food preservation is the only method to reduce food losses and drying is the method that is being adopted since many centuries. This paper presents a numerical simulation of the airflow inside a hybrid solar-electrical dryer, using a commercial CFD package. With prescribed temperatures and velocities, the model predicts the behavior of the airflow inside the device. Numerical results are compared with experimental data.

[1]  B. Bena,et al.  Natural convection solar dryer with biomass back-up heater , 2002 .

[2]  B. K. Bala,et al.  Experimental and modelling performances of a roof-integrated solar drying system for drying herbs and spices , 2008 .

[3]  D. Mennouche,et al.  Crop drying by indirect active hybrid solar – Electrical dryer in the eastern Algerian Septentrional Sahara , 2009 .

[4]  P. Barnwal,et al.  Grape drying by using hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) greenhouse dryer: An experimental study , 2008 .

[5]  B. Launder,et al.  The numerical computation of turbulent flows , 1990 .

[6]  A. Zomorodian,et al.  Applying CFD for designing a new fruit cabinet dryer , 2010 .

[7]  D. Wilcox Turbulence modeling for CFD , 1993 .

[8]  Antonio Ficarella,et al.  Thermo-fluid-dynamic investigation of a dryer, using numerical and experimental approach , 2003 .

[9]  V. K. Vijay,et al.  Study on performance evaluation of hybrid drier for turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) drying at village scale , 2006 .

[10]  F. Menter Two-equation eddy-viscosity turbulence models for engineering applications , 1994 .

[11]  Ibrahim Dincer,et al.  Experimental and numerical investigation of heat and mass transfer during drying of Hayward kiwi fruits (Actinidia Deliciosa Planch) , 2008 .

[12]  Jorge Dias,et al.  Espigueiros portugueses : Sistemas primitivos de secagem e armazenamento de produtos agrícolas , 1994 .

[13]  Mohamed Sassi,et al.  Modelling of heat and mass transfer in a tunnel dryer , 2006 .

[14]  B. Launder,et al.  THE NUMERICAL COMPUTATION OF TURBULENT FLOW , 1974 .

[15]  Saeed Ziaei-Rad,et al.  Numerical simulation of rough rice drying in a deep-bed dryer using non-equilibrium model. , 2010 .

[16]  Kamaruzzaman Sopian,et al.  Review of solar dryers for agricultural and marine products , 2010 .

[17]  Robert J. Moffat,et al.  Describing the Uncertainties in Experimental Results , 1988 .