PERFORMANCE OF SOLAR DRYER CHAMBER USED FOR CONVECTIVE DRYING OF SPONGE-COTTON

Abstract

Solar dryer chamber is designed and operated for five days of July 008. Drying experiments are conducted for sponge-cotton; as a eference drying material in the ranges between 35.0 to 49.5 °C of mbient air temperature, 35.2 to 69.8 °C drying air temperature ,30 o 1258 W/m2 solar radiation and 0.016 to 0.08 kg/s drying air flow ate. For each experiment, the mass flow rate of the air remained onstant throughout the day. The variation of moisture ratio, drying ate, overall dryer efficiency, and temperature distribution along the ryer chamber for various drying air temperatures and air flow rates re discussed. The results indicated that drying air temperature is he main factor in controlling the drying process and that air mass low rate has remarkable influence on overall drying performance. or the period of operation, the dryer attained an average emperature of 53.68°C with a standard deviation of 8.49°C within a 2-h period from 7:00 h to 19:00 h. The results of this study indicated hat the present drying system has overall efficiency between 1.85 nd 18.6 % during drying experiments. Empirical correlations of emperature lapse and moisture ratio in the dryer chamber are found o satisfactorily describe the drying curves of sponge-cotton material hich may form the basis for the development of solar dryer design harts.

Keywords

Dates

  • Submission Date2011-07-10
  • Revision Date2012-05-22
  • Acceptance Date2012-05-25

DOI Reference

10.2298/TSCI110710084A

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