ABSTRACT:
A new type of solar collector has been designed and tested. The design is compact, sufficiently simple and gives a high thermal performance. This paper deals with the design of a modular drying system consisting of three functional units, namely a triplepass flat plate air collector, a drying cabinet, and a dehumidification chamber. The flat plat collector is 190 cm long, 122.5 cm wide and 23.5 cm deep externally and incorporates two absorbers separated by about 6 cm. Air flows below the bottom absorber during the first pass, then in the opposite direction and finally through the air spaces between the glazing and top absorber plate into a mixing chamber and a drying chamber; the top air space is divided into two compartments with baffles installed to distribute the air over the collector surface. The drying cabinet has two wall collectors located on the east-west line to provide additional heat gain and trays spaced equally on spacers. The dehumidification chamber is a rectangular box fitted with three perforated trays containing the desiccant, silica gel. This is used to sustain the drying process during periods of low insolation.
Energy in Agriculture 04/1986; 5(1-5):1-20. DOI:10.1016/0167-5826(86)90002-1