Numerical Investigation on an Indirect Type of Natural Solar Collector for Drying

Drying which is the important process in the preservation of food picks up the moisture in the wet product and keep it at the lower moisture content. However, this process needs the energy to heat air from ambient temperature to nearly 80oC - 100oC to extract moisture from the wet product. With the advantage of having the existing high solar radiation intensity in Viet Nam, solar energy can be harnessed to heat air in this process. In this paper, the author designed the triangle finned solar collector of an indirect type natural solar drying and investigated its thermal performance at 13 pm, through 12 months, the face of the south, location in Can Tho province by using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD). The result shows that the outlet temperature of the solar collector ranges from 75.8oC to 88.46oC with the natural air flowrate from 10.34 g/s to 11.94 g/s, so it is eligible for agricultural drying. The natural air flowrate strongly depends on the solar radiation which strikes the solar collector. The higher solar radiation, the higher air flow rate that can be acquired. Keywords: solar energy, natural solar drying, CFD, Autodesk CFD, triangle solar collector.