International Journal of Engineering, Management & Sciences (IJEMS)
ISSN: 2348 –3733, Volume-1, Issue-12, December 2014
Experimental Analysis on Solar Air Dryer
Arvind Kumar Singh, Pushpendra Kumar Sharma, Harimohan Sharma

Abstract— An indirect forced convection solar dryer is designed
and fabricated to investigate its performance under the hot and
dry climatic condition of Jaipur, India. The system consists of
flat plate collector and drying chamber with two shelves and a
chimney. Dimensions of collector and drying chamber are 1.21
m x 0.87 m and 0.5 x 0.5 x 0.5 m respectively. There are four
baffles of dimension 40cmx3cmx7cm fitted between absorber
and back plate. The distance between back plate and absorber
plate is 8cm. The experiments were performed on green chilies.
The drying time is 10 hours. Collector is inclined at 45° with
horizontal and oriented in the South - North direction. During
experimentation 11 temperatures, relative humidity, air velocity
and solar intensity were measured hourly in the month of May
and July, 2010 for drying of green chilies and potato chips.
Solar intensity varied between 550-890 W/m2 and maximum
temperature rise was 20.6oC. Hot air at 61oC from the collector
is supplied through 3.5 cm diameter PVC pipe at the bottom of
the drying cabinet. The moisture content and weight of chilies
was reduced from 90% to 13% and 2 kg to 0.232 kg in three
days respectively. Result of the present study shows that the
drying time is reduced and quality of the final products are
superior.
Index Terms— Solar Power, thermal efficiency, heat loss
coefficient, solar intensity, etc..
I. INTRODUCTION
Energy in various forms has played an increasingly
important role in worldwide economic progress and
industrialization. In view of the world’s depleting fossil fuel
reserves, which provide the major source of energy, the
development of non-conventional renewable energy sources
has received an impetus. Sunlight available freely as a direct
and perennial source of energy provides a non-polluting
reservoir of fuel. The simplest and the most efficient way to
utilize solar energy is to convert it into thermal energy for
heating applications by using solar collectors. Solar air
heaters, because of their inherent simplicity are cheap and
most widely used collection devices. The main applications of
solar air heaters are space heating; these can also be
effectively used for curing/drying. The solar air heater
occupies an important place among solar heating system
because of minimal use of materials and the direct use of air as
the working substance reduces the number of required system
components.
Manuscript received December 09, 2014.
Arvind Kumar Singh, THDC Instiute of Hydropower Enginering and
Technology, Tehri, Utrakhand, India
Pushpendra Kumar Sharma, THDC Instiute of Hydropower
Enginering and Technology, Tehri, Utrakhand,
Harimohan Sharma, Apex group of Institutions, Jaipur, Rajasthan
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II. SOLAR AIR HEATER
Solar air heater is a type of energy collector in which the
energy from the sun, solar insolation, is captured by an
absorbing medium and used to heat air. Solar air heating is a
renewable energy heating technology used to heat or
condition air for buildings or process heat applications. A
simple solar air collector consists of an absorber material,
sometimes having a selective surface, to capture radiation
from the sun and transfers this thermal energy to air via
conduction heat transfer. This heated air is then ducted to the
building space or to the process area where the heated air is
used for space heating or process heating needs. Solar air
collectors can be commonly divided into two categories:
Glazed (reticulating types)
Unglazed (ambient air heaters -transpired type)
III. GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND PRINCIPLE OF SOLAR
DRYER
Drying or dehydration of material means removal of
moisture from the interior of the material to the surface and
then to remove the moisture from the surface of drying
material. Drying of seeds prevents germinations and growth
and fungi and bacteria. The traditional age old practices of
drying food crops in developing countries like India,
Bangladesh etc. is spreading food products in open sun
termed as open sun drying or natural sun drying .This natural
sun drying is simple and economical but suffers from many
drawbacks such as there is no control over the drying rate
discoloration .There is no uniform drying. Classical drying or
natural sun drying has several disadvantages like spoilage
of product due to adverse climatic condition like rain, wind,
moist, and dust, storm may damage the
crops, loss of material due to birds and animals,
deterioration of the material by decomposition, insects and
fungus growth etc. in open sun drying. Also the process is
highly labor intensive, time consuming and requires large
area. Artificial mechanical drying and Classical drying or
natural sun drying process is highly energy intensive and
expensive which ultimately increases product cost. Thus
solar drying is the best alternative as a solution of all the
drawbacks of natural drying and artificial mechanical drying.
Solar dryers used in agriculture for food and crop
drying ,for industrial drying process, dryers can be
proved to be most useful device from energy conservation
point of view. It not only save energy but also save lot of
time, occupying less area, improves quality of the product,
makes the process more efficient and protects environment
also. Solar dryers circumvent some of the major
disadvantages of classical drying. Solar drying can be used
for the entire drying process or for supplementing
 Experimental Analysis on Solar Air Dryer
artificial drying systems, thus reducing the total amount of
fuel energy required.
There are several advantages of controlled drying of
grains such as product quality, storage capability and hygiene
improvement, reduced wastage, time and space improved
transportability.
Applications of Solar Dryer:
 Agriculture crop drying
 Medicinal plants Drying
 Pharmaceutical Drying
 Food processing industries for dehydration of fr
uits, potatoes, onions and other vegetables,
 Dairy industries for production of milk powder,
casein etc.
 Seasoning of wood and timber.
 Screen print Drying
 Textile industries for drying of textile materials.
To dry materials a supply of heat energy is essential
to evaporate the water and supply of air to carry away the
water vapour produced. For control drying of food we use
fuels like electricity, natural gas or coal etc. Due to scarcity of
fossil fuels and many environmental problems associated with
these uses energy engineers are searching of alternating
sources of energy. Solar energy is best solution or appropriate
alternative sources of energy. Solar energy is clean, safe and
abruptly available. An improved technology in utilizing solar
energy is the use of ‘solar dryers’ where the air heated in a flat
plate solar collector and then heated is pass through drying
chamber.
A. Types of Solar Dryers
Basically solar dryers can be broadly classified into two
types:
1. Direct type solar dryers or Natural Convection.
2. Forced Circulation type solar dryers.
Natural convection dryers are generally of a size
appropriate for on-farm use. The dryer consist of three
components, solar collector, drying chamber and solar
chimney. In this the air is passed naturally through a bed of
dryer.
The forced convection solar dryers can be
considered as a conventional mechanical drying system in
which air is forced through a bed of dryer but the air is heated
by a solar collector rather than by more conventional means.
Forced Circulation or Active type solar dryers employ
motorized fans for circulation of drying air.
The integral type dryers are simple in both construction and
operation and require little maintenance. However, they are
likely to operate at lower efficiency due to their simplicity and
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there is less control of drying operation. The distributed types
are much elaborate structures so require great investment in
materials and running cost, but have higher efficiency and as a
result product quality is generally higher. The solar dryer has
two significant disadvantages: a limited ability to process
crops when the weather is poor; and drying can only occur
during daytime. This not only limits production and extends
the drying time but also may have an adverse effect on
production and product quality particularly fleshy crop
products such as roots and stems that typically have drying
time of several days. This limitation has led to the
development of hybrid system with auxiliary heating system
such as burner using biomass, biogas or fossil fuels.
Alternatively, to achieve more efficient energy use, some
active solar dryers are designed with thermal storage devices
(mainly rocks or gravels) to extend drying time during the
night time and in periods of low sunshine.
Solar air heater mainly of three types:
I. Flat plat solar air heater
II. Finned solar air heater
III. V-corrugated solar air heater
Solar air heater also can further classified on the
basis of box material, absorber plate material, size, blower
capacity. To fabricate this system used wood and for solar
radiation collector used GI sheet.
Dimensions of wooden block for solar air heater are
127cmX93X10cm and the dimension of GI sheet is
127cmX87cm. The Solar Air Heater where an air stream is
heated by the back side of the collector plate. Baffles attached
to the plate increase the contact surface. The most favorable
orientation, of a air heater, for heating only is facing due south
at an inclination angle to the horizontal equal to the latitude
plus 15o. Air in air heater passed through a space between the
absorber plate and insulator with baffles arranged to provide a
long (zig-zag) flow path
COMPONENT OF SAH
A. Absorber Plate
The primary function of the absorber plate is to
absorb as much as possible of the radiation reaching to plate,
loose as little heat as possible upward to the atmosphere and
downward through the back of the container.. In general,
absorption of solar energy impinging on an absorber plate
should be as high as possible, but re-emission (loss) outward
from the collector should be minimized.
Absorber plates are usually given a surface
coating (which may be a black paint) that increases the
fraction of available solar radiation absorbed by the plate (its
absorptance α). These surfaces must be able to withstand
repeated and prolonged exposure to high temperatures
without appreciable deterioration or out gassing.
As a absorber plate we can use various material
sheet on the basis of their Solar absorptance, Infrared
emittance and Reflectance. The emittance of a surface varies
with its temperature and its roughness. If it is a metal, it
depends also on its degree of oxidation. Highly polished
metals have low emittance but more reflectivity. Selective
absorbers often consist of a very thin black metallic sheet
metal base. The sheet is thick enough to act as a good
absorber, with α = 0.95.
 International Journal of Engineering, Management & Sciences (IJEMS)
ISSN: 2348 –3733, Volume-1, Issue-12, December 2014
Table gives values of absorptance and infrared Thermal Efficiency
(IR) emittance for various Materials; it alsogives values of
reflectance. It is noteworthy that many common building The thermal efficiency of the solar collectors (η) is defined as
materials have excellent emitting surfaces for long wave the ratio between the energy gain and the solar radiation
radiation. incident on the collector plane:
B. Baffles
η = mCp ΔT/I.At
A flat board or plate, deflector, guide, or similar
device constructed or placed in flowing air systems to cause where I is solar radiation incident to the outer plate W/m2 , At
more uniform flow velocities to absorb more energy and to is plates area, Cp is specific heat capacity of air [kJ/kg°c] at
divert, guide the air. These baffles provide more area of air mean temperature, ΔT is temperature difference between
contact by diverting or deflecting the air flow. Due to this inlet and outlet airflow (° C)
reason heat transfer takes place more and air take more heat. The heat loss calculations for solar collector.
The solar thermal efficiency depends essentially on thermal
Main purpose of baffles in solar dryer is to provide losses from outer surfaces of the collector. These losses are
more contact area to get more heat. Main applications of classified as.
baffles are Solar Dryer, Heat Exchangers, Flow Channels etc.
Heat Loss Coefficient:
IV. FABRICATION OF THE SOLAR AIR HEATER: The Top Heat Loss Coefficient
Fabrication of a Solar Air Heater carried out by wood, blower,
PVC pipe, fiber coated rubber pipe, GI sheet and GI pipe and This coefficient determines the sum total of energy lost from
clips etc. the absorber to the ambient by the combined processes of
First step is that made a wooden box of convection and radiation
127cmX93cmX10cm without cover on the top with two holes
for inlet and outlet air. After made baffles of 1
40cmX7cmX3cm and fix them inside the wooden box at gap
 
 
between two baffles is 3o cm. Thermocouples attached at N 1   (Tp 2  Ta 2 )(Tp  Ta )
different 9 point at uniform distance on the back side of Ut    
1 2N  f 1
C  Tp  Ta  hw 
Galvanized iron sheet by using of shoulder and attach this
sheet on the top of the wooden box with certain arrangement
 
Tp
  N  f 


 d

 g
N
of nut and bolts. Attach GI pipe at inlet and outlet holes of
solar air heater. Also attach the blower at the inlet pipe with
fiber coated rubber pipe. Assemble wheels on the bottom to
204.429  cos  
.252
make it portable. Fig.- shows the Solar air heater
c
Drying Chamber:
L.24
d   p  0.0425 N 1   p 
Design of solar drying chamber is most
 9 30   Ta 
 1  0.091N 
important part of the solar drying system because air flow f   
through chamber also depends on design. Most common  hw hw2   316.9 
designs are cylindrical chamber with a cone of 40-60º, drying
chambers with a flat bottom, horizontal box type drying hw  5.7  3.8v
chambers. Drying Systems should be designed to be the most
e  .252
efficient and economical.
Where Ut= top loss coefficient
It is square shaped drying chamber with
N= number of glass cover
dimension of 5ocmX50cmX50cm. Drying chamber take hot
Tp= plate temperature
air from the Solar Air Heater through a pipe and remove the
Ta= ambient air temperature
humidity or moisture content from the product and dry the
hw = air convective heat transfer coefficient
product. Hot air leaves in atmosphere through solar chimney
δ = Stefan’s Boltzmann constant
εp = emissivity of plate
εg = emissivity of glass
Air Mass Flow Rate
L = length of plate
m = ρAoutV
The bottom heat loss coefficient
Where V is average outflow air velocity in channels, Aout is
Energy dissipation from the bottom of the collector is the
outflow duct area and ρ is the outflow air density at outflow
collective effect of conduction from the absorbing surface to
temperature.
the insulator at the bottom and convection and radiation from
the outside wall to the ambient surroundings. Thermal loss
coefficient from the bottom could be calculated as follows

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 Experimental Analysis on Solar Air Dryer

1 v 15.6 m/s
U b 
xi   1
xw hw 5.7+3.8x 15.6
ρ 1.2kg/m3
ki kw hw Cp 1.005KJ/kgk
Area of plate Ap = 1.21x.87
Diameter of outlet pipe 3.6cm
Where Ub =Bottom loss coefficient
Ki and kw are thermal conductivity of insulating 
Ao d2
material and base plate 4
Xi and Xw are thickness of insulation and wooden Xw, thickness of wood 2cm
plate Kw, conductivity of wood 0.17 w/mk
Energy input IxAp 490x.87x1.21
Total heat loss coefficient

U= Ub+Ut Energy output

Q=UAΔT
Ut = 64.98, Ub = 7.5, Ut= 64.98+7.5= 72.5

QL= UApΔT = 305.2W

V. EXPERIMENTAL SET UP
It is the assembled view of all three parts (Solar Air Heater,
Drying chamber, Solar chimney) of solar dryer.
Effect of other parameters
1. If we vary the velocity of air then efficiency decreases as
the velocity of air increases.
2. If Δt increases then efficiency increases.
3. If solar intensity increases then efficiency first increases
and then decreases.

Table 2 Absorber plate temperatures

Day 1
Absorber Plate temperatures, oC
May t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6 t7 t8 t9
17
9:00 54 45 56 57 52 54 56 50 48
am
10:00 58 49 61 64 58 56 62 52 53
am
11:00 62 49 64 66 59 56 62 56 53
am
12:00 66 49 68 69 62 58 66 58 57
pm
Figure 1 Solar Air Dryer 1:00 70 50 73 73 64 60 71 60 60
pm
2:00 72 52 73 74 66 61 73 56 62
Performance Analysis pm
3:00 70 54 71 71 65 63 70 56 62
pm
Absorber Plate temperature of nine points taken
4:00 68 55 70 68 64 63 69 55 60
pm
Table 1 Absorber plate temperature
T1= (t1+t2+t3+t4+t5+t6+t7+t8+t9)/9
5-8-10 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 T9
9:00 34 34 33 34 35 30 35 36 35 temperature at absorber plate, collector outlet, inlet
am to dryer, at first and second shelves, and chimney outlet, solar
intensity, relative humidity and velocity at inlet and outlet,
N=0, as there is no cover weight of the product and efficiency

Mean plate temperature

(T1+T2+T3+T4+T5+T6+T7+T8+T9)/9
Mean temperature 34°C
Solar Intensity 490W/m2
Ambient temperature 30°C
εp 0.13

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 International Journal of Engineering, Management & Sciences (IJEMS)
ISSN: 2348 –3733, Volume-1, Issue-12, December 2014

Table 3 Absorber plate temperatures

Day1
17 may T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 Tamb I η
9:00am 52.4 49 48 48 45 44 38.8 550 45
10:00am 57 56 55 54 54 53 39.6 630 50.2
11:00am 58.5 58 58 57 56 56 41.4 710 43.8
12:00pm 61.4 61 61 60 58 57 43.8 759 42.2
1:00pm 64.5 63 62 62 60 58 43.9 890 42.13
2:00pm 63.4 59 61 60 60 58 43.1 798 46.29
3:00pm 61.6 62 60 58 57 56 43 721 46.95
4:00pm 58.4 55 55 58 53 51 42.8 588 48.2

Fig 3 time of day vs. temperature

VI. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The graph of the figure 4.1 is plotted between solar
intensity, efficiency and time of day and data taken from table
1. The graph shows hourly variation of solar intensity and
efficiency of the solar air heater, as the day progresses solar
intensity increases with maximum at noon, and efficiency is
maximum at the morning.
CONCLUSION
Experiments were performed on solar air heater, the
maximum temperature rise is 20°c and maximum solar
intensity was 890w/m2. Maximum efficiency of 50.2 is
obtained and there are top and bottom losses as there is no
glass cover on the top, further efficiency can be improved by
providing insulation at the bottom

Effect of other parameters

1. If we vary the velocity of air then efficiency decreases as

the velocity of air increases.
2. If Δt increases then efficiency increases.
3. If solar intensity increases then efficiency first increases
and then decreases.

Fig 2 solar intensity vs. efficiency vs. time in hour
The graph 2 which is bar chart shows relation between time
of day vs. temperature. The two temperatures shown are
ambient temperature and plate temperature and from the bar
chart it is clear that the difference of the temperature is
between 15°c to 20°c, also maximum temperature difference
is 20.6°c.
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