Quality drying of apricots using CFD simulation in solar tunnel dryer
2015
Akhter, M.I.
In present years use of CFD simulation has been increased to reduce the cost on designing of dryers and ovens to predict temperature and velocity profiles within the drying- chamber for better and quality drying of agricultural products. CFD simulation technique saves resources and produce highly accurate results which cannot be obtained easily through experimentation. Solar drying has also become very popular to preserve and increase the quality of agricultural products. Various types of dryer with different characteristics to dry fruits, vegetables and medicinal plants are available. In present study an effort has been made to dry apricot using CFD simulation in solar tunnel dryer which is modern technique to dry vegetables and perishable fruit items. CFD simulation results showed that there is perfect uniform flow of temperature and air within the dryer. Temperature is high in the solar collecting chamber and it spreads uniformly till the end of dryer. Velocity profile also showed that air velocity is dependent of solar radiations. It increase with increase in radiations and is maximum at the inlet and reduces as air moves towards the outlet. Same results were found during experiments and hence a strong relationship was found. Apricot was dried in the dryer and comparison was made to find out the correlation in the results obtained from simulation and experiment. System efficiency and drying rates of apricot in the solar tunnel dryer were also investigated. The results showed that apricots dried in tunnel dryer is of good quality and also drying time is reduced much in this modern technique.
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