Applying CFD for the Optimization of the Drying Chamber of an Indirect Solar Dryer

Abstract

The importance of renewable energy technologies is illustrated by their dependence on inexhaustible sources, and it has a friendly relationship with the environment, because of its several advantages. This type of systems are more attractive to investors as well for researchers in terms of development, In this paper, we are particularly interested in the modern system used for drying products, more precisely the one based on solar energy, like the indirect solar dryer, It generally consists of a solar air collector that generates a flow of air that passes through it and goes up to the drying chamber. In order to make the performance of the chamber more efficient, we try in this work to improve the efficiency of the solar dryer by improving the geometry, with the aim of reducing the drying time while guaranteeing the high quality of the dried product. The geometry of the chamber is divided into two sections: the first where the trays are located and the second one is a side-mounted plenum chamber. The width of this latter as well the distance between the first tray and the rooftop of the drying chamber where studied using ANSYS FLUENT software, under the climate of the oriental region of Morocco. And the results showed that the most suitable width for the side-mounted plenum chamber is 0.4 m with an optimal distance between the first tray (the upper tray) and the top of the chamber of 0.06 m.