Comparative Analysis of Forced Convection Direct Solar Dryer by varying the Dryer Load and Mass Flow Rate

A prototype direct solar dryer has been fabricated and tested in no load, partial load and full loading conditions under forced convection mode. Experiment has been conducted in different cases. Case -1 is when no load is used inside the dryer and air velocity is 2 - 10 m/s, case 2 is when partial load is used inside the dryer and air velocity 2 - 10 m/s. Case -3 when full load is used inside the dryer and air velocity is 2 - 10 m/s. Ambient temperature, solar radiation, solar dryer temperature and air velocity have been evaluated in thermal performance analysis and calculating the mass flow rate. The results also showing the effectiveness of moisture reduced and reduced weight per hour. In this paper, a direct solar dryer prototype is designed, constructed and performance tested for the analysis of the drying kinetics of these by products and their possible efficiency evaluation. The characteristics of the prototype are presented together with the variations of the properties of temperature, air velocity and mass flow rate for direct solar dryer. The analysis of the drying kinetics of the tomato or potato slices shows the performance of the direct solar dryer obtaining reductions of the drying time than the conventional drying.