Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis on Solar Dryer of Spices

Drying of food items has been an area subject to several studies. This is indicative of the importance of drying methods in food preservation. Drying has been an age-old practice and has evolved and improved with time, credited to the innovations in this field. However, there is a gap in the literature to computationally optimize the drying setup and drying process for partially sunny or cloudy weather. In literature, work has been done to study the varying air conditions and their drying effect on spices. However, the aim of the current work will be to study and observe the characteristics of the drying air (temperature, velocity, humidity), which circulates and acts as the medium of drying of spices. The setup of the active solar dryer consists of a flat plate collector through which air will be heated and dragged inside the drying chamber with the help of a fan. The fan will be fitted at the outlet chimney of the drying chamber. The chamber of the solar dryer will also consist of trays to hold the sample to be dried. The setup will be modeled, and its computational performance will be evaluated considering forced convection of heat transfer. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis will be done on ANSYS-FLUENT to simulate the effects of parameters such as drying air velocity, mass flow rate, moisture, and temperature on the drying process of samples. Thereby, the conditions favorable for optimum drying of samples and maximum efficiency of the setup will be explored. Additionally, the aim will be to determine the hotspots in air flowing in the drying chamber, which may dictate the prime position for placement of trays. The results will be analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively with reference to the relevant literature.