Design, Development and Performance Analysis of a Solar Dryer

In this current investigation, an effort has been made to rate the performance of a Solar Air Dryer (SAD) by modifying the flat absorber surface with trapezoidal obstacles. The present study shows that the surface alteration of the absorber plate becomes a fruitful strategy to mitigate the existing limitations and enhance the efficacy of SAD. The present study also reveals that the plate absorber with modification, under certain conditions, works better than the conventional flat absorber. The governing parameters for this present study are the manifold inclination angles and a fixed mass rate of 0.012 kg/s. The manifold inclination angles are chosen as 25°, 30° and 35°. The results show that the modified absorber gives better thermal performance both from the first and second law point of view. The temperature of the SAD with the modified absorber plate rises up to 83.4 °C for the collector tilt angle of 30°. The absorber plate with the modified version increases the gained useful energy, energy efficiency and exergy efficiency by 57.78, 39.57 and 21.94% for the fixed tilt angle of 30°. The experiment shows that at the collector tilt angle of 30°, the drying efficiency is 69.77% and 75% with flat absorber plate and modified absorber plate respectively.