Performance Assessment of a Solar Dryer System Using Small Parabolic Dish and Alumina/Oil Nanofluid: Simulation and Experimental Study

Amir Hossein Arkian, Gholamhassan Najafi, Shiva Gorjian, Reyhaneh Loni, Evangelos Bellos and Talal Yusaf
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Amir Hossein Arkian: Department of Biosystems Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 111-14115, Iran
Gholamhassan Najafi: Department of Biosystems Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 111-14115, Iran
Shiva Gorjian: Department of Biosystems Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 111-14115, Iran
Reyhaneh Loni: Department of Biosystems Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 111-14115, Iran
Evangelos Bellos: Thermal Department, School of Mechanical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Heroon Polytechniou 9, 15780 Athens, Greece
Talal Yusaf: Office of Pro Vice Chancellor, Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Vic Australia 3353, Australia

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 24, 1-22

Abstract: In this study, a small dish concentrator with a cylindrical cavity receiver was experimentally investigated as the heat source of a dryer. The system was examined for operation with pure thermal oil and Al 2 O 3 /oil nanofluid as the working fluids in the solar system. Moreover, the design, the development, and the evaluation of the dried mint plant are presented in this work. Also, the solar dryer system was simulated by the SolidWorks and ANSYS CFX software. On the other side, the color histogram of the wet and dried mint samples based on the RGB method was considered. The results revealed that the different temperatures of the solar working fluids at the inlet and outlet of the cavity receiver showed similar trend data compared to the variation of the solar radiation during the experimental test. Moreover, it is found that the cavity heat gain and thermal efficiency of the solar system was improved by using the nanofluid as the solar working fluid. Furthermore, the required time for mint drying had decreased by increasing the drying temperature and increasing air speed. The highest drying time was measured equal to 320 min for the condition of the air speed equal to 0.5 m/s and the drying temperature of 30 °C. A good agreement was observed between the calculated numerical results and measured experimental data. Finally, based on the color histogram of the wet and dried mint samples, it was concluded that intensity amount of the red color of the mint increased with the drying process compared to intensity amount of the red color of the wet mint sample.

Keywords: solar dish concentrator; cylindrical cavity receiver; nanofluid; experimental test; simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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