Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

CFD modeling and evaluation the performance of a solar cabinet dryer

equipped with evacuated tube solar collector and thermal storage
system
Masoud Iranmanesh a, *, Hadi Samimi Akhijahani b, Mohammad Saleh Barghi Jahromi a
a
Department of Energy, Institute of Science and High Technology and Environmental Sciences, Kerman Graduate University of Advanced Technology,
Kerman, Iran
b
Department of Bio Systems Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper investigates the performance of a solar cabinet drying system equipped with a heat pipe
Received 14 November 2018 evacuated tube solar collector (ETSC) and thermal storage system with application of PCM. The thermal
Received in revised form analysis of the solar collector, drying efficiency, CFD modeling of the system and quality evaluation of
6 June 2019
dried apple slices was considered. The performance of the dryer was simulated and validated by
Accepted 9 June 2019
Available online 13 June 2019
experimental data. The experiments was conducted at three air flow rates (0.025, 0.05 and 0.09 kg/s) for
the drying system with and without using PCM for drying apple slices with the thickness of 5 mm. The
result of thermal analysis showed that using PCM increases the input thermal energy about 1.72% and
Keywords:
Computational fluid dynamics
5.12% for the air flow rates of 0.025 and 0.05 kg/s respectively, but excessive increase in air flow rate (up
Drying rate to 0.05 kg/s) decreases input thermal energy. The maximum overall drying efficiency was related to the
Drying efficiency system with PCM at the air flow rate of 0.025 kg/s and it was 39.9%. CFD simulation of the storage system
Phase change materials and the dryer showed that there is a good agreement between the simulated and experimental. Using
Solar dryer PCM has no adverse effect on the quality of the dried product.
© 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction
According to the studies and researches, the consumption of the
energy in the world is doubled every 20 years [1]. Meanwhile, the
use of renewable energy is still lower than fossil fuels, which has
caused many environmental problems and pollution in the world.
However, in recent decades, the desire to use renewable and new
energies, especially solar energy, has been increased [2]. A signifi-
cant part of the world's energy (about 30%) is spent on agricultural
sector and about 3.62% used for drying of agricultural products
[3,4].
One of the appropriate methods for keeping and storing the
agricultural products like fresh fruits is drying them by the well-
designed machines with optimal energy consumption. Without
drying process, free water causes the corruption inside the food
materials. Therefore, taking the free water from the agricultural
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: m.iranmanesh@kgut.ac.ir (M. Iranmanesh), h.samimi@uok.ac.
ir (H. Samimi Akhijahani).
products increases the shelf life of the food materials and makes
them easy to pack and transport. Solar drying is one the most
practical methods for drying agricultural products which includes
two traditional and industrial methods. In the traditional method
due to drying in front of the sun through the open area without any
shield, the quality and the price of dried products is lower than the
industrial method [5]. In the other hand the simple design of solar
dryers and the availability of solar power, causes the solar dryers
were used all over the world. Despite the benefits of using solar
energy for drying agricultural products such as low cost and
availability, the little development of these equipment has occurred
due to the low efficiency of solar dryers. Hence, many efforts have
been carried out to improve the performance of solar dryers. In a
solar dryer, different types of collectors are usually combined with a
dryer. One of the most used types of the solar dryers is the solar
cabinet dryer. In this type of drying system, the drying chamber and
the source of thermal energy are separated and the product is not
exposed to the sunlight directly, thus maintaining its quality and
color. Moreover, drying large amount of the products in one run
causes most of the solar dryers designed and used in cabinet type
[6]. Many examples can be found in the literature that free,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.06.038
0960-1481/© 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213 1193

Nomenclatures Pfan Fan power (W)

Ppump Water pump power (W)
Ac Collector surface (m2) Qconv Energy flux of convection from heated fluid to wall
Amush Mushy zone constant (
) cover of PCM (J/s)
Cε Constant in turbulent model (
) Qcond Conducted heat from the container spiral wall to the
cl Specific heat capacity of PCM at the solid mode (J/ PCM (J/s)
kg.K) Qf Energy flux for the fluid through the storage tank (J/s)
cp Specific heat capacity of fluid (J/kg.K) Qin,dryer Thermal energy input to the dryer (J)
cs Specific heat capacity of PCM at the solid mode (J/ Qout,dryer Energy output from the cabinet dryer (J)
kg.K) Qpcm The total energy absorbed by PCM (J)
D Diameter of absorber tube (m) Qu Useful energy rate (J/s)
Dg Diameter of outer glass (m) !
S Momentum source term (N/m)
DR Drying rate (kg water/kg dry matter. min) Sk Additional source terms k
Emec Mechanical energy consumed by fan and water pump Sε Additional source terms ε
(J) t Time (s)
Est Stored energy in the storage tank (J) tc Thickness of copper wall (m)
FR heat removal factor (
) Tca Mean cabinet temperature (oC)
Gk Generation of turbulence kinetic energy due to the Tc,m Mean cover temperature (K)
mean velocity gradients (J) Tf,in Inlet fluid temperature for the storage tank (K)
Gb Generation of turbulence kinetic energy due to Tf,m Mean fluid temperature (K)
buoyancy (J) Tf,out Outlet fluid temperature for the storage tank (K)
g Acceleration of gravity (m/s2) Tpcm Temperature of PCM (K)
H Enthalpy (J/kg) T1-T2 Temperature difference (K)
hc Heat transfer coefficient Ue Edge loss coefficient of the header tube (W/m2 K)
hg-a Convective heat transfer coefficient from glass to the UL Overall coefficient of heat loss (W/m2K)
air (W/m2 K) Ut Heat loss coefficient from absorber tube to the
hp-g,r Radiation heat transfer coefficient between the outer ambient (W/m2 K)
glass and absorber tube (W/m2 K) ui Time averaged velocity vector (m/s)
hp-g,c Conductive heat transfer coefficient between the !
V Velocity vector (m/s)
absorber and the glass (W/m2 K)
Wa Initial weight (kg)
href Reference enthalpy at the reference temperature (J/
Ym Contribution of the fluctuating dilatation (
)
kg)
Io Solar radiation normal to the collector (W/m2)
b Volumetric expansion coefficient (1/K)
εg Emittance of outer glass (
)
kw Thermal conductivity of copper (W/m K)
εp Absorber emittance (
)
Lv Vaporization latent heat of moisture (kJ/kg)
mpcm Mass of PCM (kg)
hdryer Drying efficiency (
)
Me Equilibrium moisture content (kg water/kg dry
h The energy efficiency of the collector (
)
matter)
m Dynamic viscosity (N.s/m2)
Mf Final moisture content of dried potato (kg water/kg
x Liquid fraction (
)
dry matter)
r Density (kg/m3)
Mo Initial moisture content (kg water/kg dry matter)
s Stefan-boltzmann constant (W/m2 K4)
Mt Moisture content of the dried samples at any time (kg
sk Turbulent Prandtl numbers for k (
)
water/kg dry matter)
sε Turbulent Prandtl numbers for ε (
)
p Pressure (N/m2)

abundant and unlimited solar thermal energy used for drying of
agricultural products. For example, solar drying method has been
used for drying tomatoes [7e9], banana slices [10,11], date palm
[12], pineapple [13], potato slices [14], mint leaves [15], chili pepper
[16], rosemary leaves [17] and melon slices [18].
As noted before, the low efficiency of solar dryers leads a large
part of the agricultural products dried by the dryers which powered
by fossil fuels. Thus to improve the drying process of products,
saving energy and reducing the cost of dried product, proper and
optimal design of solar dryers is essential [19]. Several methods
have been used to increase the efficiency of solar dryers such as
using heat recovery system [20], combination of PV system with
curtain inside the dryer [14], using reflectors [21], incorporating
heat pump systems [22,23], changing the structure of collectors [1]
and using phase change materials [5,24].
Among the flat collectors which are connected with the drying
chamber, evacuated tube solar collectors (ETSC) are more efficient
which can combine with the other collectors with lower mainte-
nance and lower cost and higher outlet fluid temperature related to
flat plate collectors [25,26]. There are some advantages with ETSC
such as having a good performance during the year (specially for
the days with the lower solar radiation) due to its tubular absorber,
less convection heat lost, no need to stop the whole system when
one tube is broken and also working in inappropriate weather
condition [27,28]. Various studies have been performed to increase
the efficiency of evacuated tube solar collectors such as: using
nanofluid [28,29], changing the shape of the absorber tubes [30],
evaluation of optimal tilt-angles of all-glass over the tubes [31],
using water in glass cover of the tubes [32] and using individual
single walled evacuated tube with direct flow [33].
The low efficiency of solar drying system could be improve by
using phage change materials (PCM) inside fluid storage tank which
profoundly increases the period of drying process with higher and
homogenous temperature. It has been proven that using PCM in
1194 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213
solar dryers improved their thermal efficiency and several re-
searchers have been used these materials with various methods
[34e40]. By using PCM inside the storage tank, the amount of
thermal energy stored by the PCM during the day (especially when
the solar radiation intensity is at maximum level) increases and the
efficiency of solar drying system improved [41]. Moreover appli-
cation of drying system with PCM increases the capability of drying
process even after the sunset [5,42]. The quality of dried product in
the dryers which used PCM and storage tank improved related to
the dryers without PCM [43]. Materials which used as phase-
change materials are limited and they selected based on their po-
tential of thermal energy storage and melting temperature in which
the solid phase changes to liquid phase [44e46]. Paraffin wax due
to its higher thermal storage capacity, almost low melting tem-
perature in which it is close to the operating temperature of solar
thermal systems and its availability could be the best choice for
using in solar drying system.
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a powerful tool for
analysis of fluid flow through the dryer and thermal design in in-
dustrial applications, as well as in academic research activities [47].
Typically, CFD method was used to analysis the thermal perfor-
mance and optimization of solar dryers such as using CFD for
designing new solar cabinet dryer [48], simulation and validation of
vanilla drying process in an indirect solar dryer [49], analysis of
innovative design of solar-biomass hybrid dryer [50], predicting
temperature distribution within the solar drying chamber [51],
simulation of a solar agricultural dryer with thermal storage system
[52] simulation transient heat transfer in solar dryers [53e56]. The
studies showed the agreement between the simulated and exper-
imental data (0.87 < R2 < 0.98). Since the heat transfer and the
behavior of the storage system is depending on the geometrical
design of the storage tank, positioning of PCM inside the tank and
the operating conditions, experimental validation of the system
should always be performed [57]. The results of the literatures
about using CFD method for fluid analysis indicate that CFD models
provide a more accurate prediction of the energy storage than other
types of mathematical models [58,59]. The computational findings
were verified through qualitative constrained melting experiments
using a high-Prandtl number wax. The CFD (Fluent) software is
successively used to simulate the application of PCMs in different
engineering applications, such as electronic cooling technology,
building thermal storage systems, heating, ventilation and air
conditioning (HVAC). Numerous computational studies have been
performed CFD method to model the thermal behavior of PCM
inside thermal storage systems such as Allouche et al., [59]; Tay
et al., [60,61]; Trp et al., [62]; Gertzos and Caouris, [63]; Hosseini
et al., [64]; Xiaohong et al., [65]. In the present work the validation
of a CFD model developed for the transient simulation of the energy
performance in the storage system and dryer was investigated. Also
the CFD simulated model was validated using experimental data
which were collected at the same condition applied for simulation
process.
Studying area and testing location: Iran with 53.6  E longitude,
32.4  N latitude has a good solar irradiance and is one of the suit-
able areas to absorb solar radiation. The solar energy in Iran varies
from 2.8 kWhm2/day in the north to 5.4 kWhm2/day in the south.
The average sun shine hours are estimated 3200 h/year in the
central part of Iran due to the hot and dry climate [66]. Kerman is
one of the major cities of Iran with 51.6  E longitude, 35.4  N lati-
tude and altitude of 1750 m above mean sea level. Energy and
exergy analysis of solar radiation, that is derived by Edalati et al.,
[67]; shows that in Kerman province solar radiation is between 6
and 7.5 kWhm2/day in summer and spring and between 3.4 and 4.2
kWhm2/day in winter and autumn. Total energy quality factor of
extraterrestrial solar radiation is ~0.9328 and it is highly dependent
on the daily solar radiation and mean environment temperature. In
exergy analysis it would be useful to specify those cities as the
better places in getting more energy from the solar systems. Daily
average exergy of solar radiation for Kerman city estimated be-
tween 5.18 and 5.47 kWhm2/day. Then the location of study is one
of the best appropriate places for application of solar equipment
based on potential of solar energy and exergy. In this area, in which
a quarter of Iran's gardens are located, most of the agricultural
activities are directly or indirectly related to the solar radiation. Due
to higher solar radiation and lower relative humidity, solar energy
is the proper choice for drying of agricultural products but low
thermal efficiency leads the farmers not use solar drying systems.
For the people of Kerman, fossil fuel is the main source of thermal
energy used for drying process which causes more environmental
problems all over the state. Solar energy is abundantly present in
Kerman city during the day time and it can be stored for later use
during the night time. Using Phase change material has a main role
in saving of thermal energy during day time which leads to more
cost effective dried products. It is well demonstrated that
combining the solar systems increases thermal efficiency of the
solar dryers. Therefore using heat pipe evacuated tube solar col-
lector (ETSC) with PCM could be the proper solution to solve the
problems associated with the solar dryers.
Based on our knowledge fewer studies have been carried out to
evaluate the combination of PCM with the collectors. Moreover, it is
not seen in the literature any investigation about the effect of using
PCM with the heat pipe evacuated tube solar collector on perfor-
mance of solar dryer. Therefore, the objective of this research is to
study the effect of using PCM and variable air forced convection on
thermal and drying efficiency of solar dryer equipped with ETSC
system. CFD simulation of thermal storage system and drying sys-
tem also was performed by Ansys, fluent software and the analyt-
ical data compared and validated using experimental data.
Furthermore, the quality parameters of the dried apple slices (dried
by solar cabinet dryer equipped with ETSC and PCM) such as
shrinkage, rehydration, and surface color are investigated and the
results also compared with other dryer without using PCM.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Thermal analysis of ETCS and heat storage system
A heat pipe evacuated tube solar collector constructed by
Alborzsolar Company, Iran, Karaj was selected for doing the ex-
periments and investigating the performance analysis of the solar
dryer. The collector included 15 two layer glass heat pipe evacuated
tube fused together at the end. The absorbing coating is located at
the outer surface of the inner glass tube (covered by a black film of
Al-Cu with the absorptance of 0.93 and emittance of 0.08) and the
space between the outer glass and the inner glass is vacuum. One-
dimensional mathematical analysis was considered for a single unit
of the glass evacuated tube solar collector. Therefore for this pur-
pose, some assumptions were used to simplify and solve the
problem: The loss coefficient from the header tube is constant, the
solar energy which absorbed by the outer glass is negligible, the
heat transfer coefficient for the outer tube due to the convection
(between the glass and outer space) is constant, the effect of
thermal resistance for the outer glass tube on the calculations is
insignificant, the steady state condition and the average heat flux
along circumferential direction was considered for solving [30]. The
first law of thermodynamics was used to analysis the data collected
from the solar collector. Considering the difference between the
inlet and outlet temperature of the system (T1-T2) the energy fluxes
Q calculated using the following equation:
 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213 1195

collector was considered based on ASHRAE standard 2003. The

Q ¼ AaðT1
T2 Þ (1) thermal efficiency (h) of the collector is considered as the main
parameter to select the proper collector for a thermal system such
A and a represent the surface area (m2) and heat transfer coefficient as a dryer. The efficiency of instantaneous collector relates to the
(W/m2K) respectively. heat energy gained from the water to the total radiation incident on
The useful energy rate absorbed by the ETSC can be estimated the collector surface. It is assumed that the solar radiation is
with the following equation: perpendicular to the absorber plate of the collector, which infre-
quently occurs. It is estimated by Eq. (8) [91]:
_ p ðTo
Ti Þ
Q u ¼ mc (2)

Where Qu is useful energy rate (J/s), cp is specific heat capacity of Qu _ p ðTo
Ti Þ

mc
h¼ ¼ (8)
fluid (J/kg.K), To-Ti is temperature difference (K). AC Io AC Io
Another expression for describing the useful energy rate can be
written as eq. (3) with considering the energy losses from the Where To and Ti are the inlet and outlet fluid temperature which
system [28,68]: flows inside the collector.
As mentioned before thermal storage system plays a major role
Q u ¼ Ac FR ð½Io ðtaÞ
UL ðTi
Ta ÞÞ (3) in solar systems such as drying process. The thermal storage system
is consists of a circular tank with the height of 0.6 m and the
Qu is defined as useful energy rate (J/s), Ac is collector surface (m2), diameter of 0.5 m. A spiral copper tube containing paraffin as PCM
FR is heat removal factor, Io is solar radiation normal to the collector for thermal storing system was located inside the tank. In each
(W/m2), UL overall coefficient of heat loss (W/m2K) and Ta is cycle, during the charging process (higher solar radiation hours),
ambient temperature (K). the PCM liquefied by absorbing heat from the hot water in the tank,
The overall coefficient of heat losses can be written as Eq. (4) and during the lower solar radiation hours (when the collector
[68]: temperature is lower than storage tank) the phase changes
reversely and paraffin losses its thermal energy to the fluid during
UL ¼ Ue þ Ut (4) the discharging process.
The energy flux around the PCM unit which includes paraffin
Where Ut and Ue are the heat loss coefficient of the absorber tube
and spiral copper tube is simulated electrically and shown in Fig. 1
and the edge loss coefficient of the header tube (W/m2K), respec-
for thermal storage system. Heat convected by the fluid and then
tively and they can be expressed as:
conducted by the wall to the PCM [65]. The heat conducted to the
ðUAÞedge PCM increases the internal temperature of PCM and at the melting
Ue ¼ and point this energy used for changing the PCM phase (Fig. 1.)
Ac The energy flux for the fluid through the storage tank is as
1 (5) follow:
Ut ¼
1 1 1
þ þ  
hg
a hp
g;r hp
g;c
_ p Tf ; in
Tf ;out
Qf ¼ mc (9)
Where (UA)edge is the product of edge loss coefficient - area, hg-a is
convective heat transfer coefficient from glass to the air, hp-g,r is Where Tf,in and Tf,out are the inlet and outlet fluid temperature
radiation heat transfer coefficient between the outer glass cover relate to the storage tank.
and absorber tube, hp-g,c is conductive heat transfer coefficient The convection heat transfer from the heated fluid to the tube
between the absorber and the glass (W/m2K). wall of PCM (Qconv) is given by Eq. (10):
The value of edge loss coefficient of the header tube for this type
 
of the collector was 0.167 W/(m2K). Also, the value of hg-a
Qconv ¼ hc Ac Tf ;m
Tw;m (10)
(convective heat transfer coefficient) and hp-g,c (conductive heat
transfer coefficient between the absorber and the glass) were
10.11 W/(m2K) and 0.325 W/(m2K), respectively. hc is heat transfer coefficient which can be calculated considering
The value of hp-g,r changes by variation of the temperature of the Nusselt, Reynolds and Prantel numbers. Tf,m and Tw,m are mean
outer glass and absorber tube in the collector and it can be defined fluid temperature and mean tube wall temperature respectively.
as: Heat conducted to the PCM (inside the spiral copper tube wall)
is expressed by Ref. [69]:
sεp  

2 2
hp
g;r ¼ εp D
 T p þ Tg Tp þ Tg (6)

1 þ εg Dp 1
εp Tw;m
Tpcm
Qcond ¼ kw Ac (11)
tw
Where s is Stefan-boltzmann constant (W/m K ), εp is the absorber
2 4
Tpcm is temperature of PCM (K), kw is thermal conductivity of
emittance, εg is the emittance of outer glass, D and Dg represents
copper (W/mK) and tw is the wall thickness (m).
diameter of absorber tube (m) and the diameter of outer glass (m),
The total energy absorbed by PCM (paraffin) during charging or
respectively.
discharging can be expressed as [70]:
Considering Eq. (5) and Eq. (6) the heat loss coefficient of the
glass of ETSC can be estimated using the following equation:




 Qpcm ¼ mpcm cs Tpcm
Tmelt Tpcm < Tmelt
Ut Tp
Ta ¼ hp
g;r Tp
Ta þ hp
g;c Tp
Ta (7) Qpcm
¼ 0 Tpcm ¼Tmelt (12)
Qpcm ¼ mpcm cl Tpcm
Tmelt Tpcm > Tmelt
By obtaining the values of Ue and Ut the overall heat loss coef-
ficient can be calculated using Eq. (4). The thermal stored energy in the tank including the fluid and
The thermal efficiency of heat pipe evacuated tube solar PCM calculated using Eq. (13) [71]:
1196 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213

Fig. 1. The schematic of thermal circuit of fluid, wall and PCM.

Est ¼ Qf þ Qpcm (13) Qout;dryer

hdryer ¼ (16)
Qin;dryer þ Emec

Thermal energy input to the dryer Qin,dryer (considering the

insulation of the channels) is given by (Demir and Dincer, 2017):
2.2. Drying efficiency
ðt

6


 
Typically for describing the effect of using other equipment Qin;dryer ¼ 10 _
mðtÞ  cp Tin;coll
Tout; coll dt
which are combined with the dryers, the drying efficiency must be 0
(17)
considered. Therefore to indicate the impact of PCM and ETSC ðt

 
system on the solar dryer performance, the drying efficiency was
_
mðtÞ  cp Tin;s
Tout; s dt
calculated. Drying efficiency is the ration of energy used for heating
0
and extracting moisture from the product over the energy
consumed (thermal & mechanical) [91]. For all the drying experi- Energy output from the cabinet dryer (Qout,dryer) is:
ments the Golden delicious apple (Malus domestica) slices with
thicknesses of 5 mm were selected. First the apples were collected Eo; dryer ¼ 10
3  W  Lv (18)
from the local store and then placed in the refrigerator at 4  C. For
each experiments about 5e6 apples were taken and cut in to 5 mm Where Lv vaporization latent heat of moisture (kJ/kg) and W is the
thickness slices. For determination the initial moisture content of amount of water (moisture) removed from the apple slices (kg)
the apple slices, about 180 g of the samples were kept in hot air were obtained by:
oven at 105 ± 2  C for about 5 h. The average initial moisture con-  
tent of the apple slices was obtained 83.9 ± 1% (wet basis %). For Wa Mo
Mf
each drying experiment, the trays were placed in a clear room and W¼ ; Lv ¼ 2502:54
2:309 Tca (19)
100
Mf
about 200 g of apple slices was considered for each tray. Three
sample trays with apple slices put in the dryer cabinet and were
Where, Wa, Mo and Mf are initial weight (kg), initial moisture
weighed every 15 min at the first hour and then every 30 min
content (kg water/kg dry matter) and final moisture content of
during the drying process. A digital balance with a capacity of
apple slices (kg water/kg dry matter), respectively. Latent heat of
1500 g and an accuracy of 0.05 g was used for weighing the sam-
vaporization is energy needed for vaporization moisture and for the
ples. Moisture ratio of the apple samples as the parameter for
fruits with higher moisture content (such as apple slices) it was
describing the drying kinetics calculated with the following equa-
higher than grains.
tion [91]:
Energy consumed by the fan for circulation the air through the
dryer and the water pump for circulation the fluid through the
Mt
Me
MR ¼ (14) thermal storage and heat exchanger systems (Emec) was expressed
M0
Me
by multiplying the fan power (Pfan) and the pump power (Ppump) in
The drying rate of apple slices was calculated using Eq. (15) operation time (s):
which indicated the difference in moisture content between the
apple slices and the equilibrium moisture content at any time [72]: Emec ¼ 10
6  Pfan or pump  t (20)

dM
DR ¼ ¼
kðMt
Me Þ (15)
dt
For calculating the drying efficiency (hdryer) of the dryer the 2.3. Experimental set up
value of the energy used to heat and remove moisture (water) from
the apple slices and the value of the total energy enters to the dryer The solar cabinet dryer considered for this study is a laboratory
system during the drying process must be obtained. It can be scale system which equipped with heat pipe evacuated tube solar
expressed as Eq. (16) [73]: collector and storage tank with PCM. The dryer was designed and
 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213 1197

c
Hot air
b
4 Hot water from
5 collector
6
a
3
Cold air

1
Cold water from
heat exchanger

Fig. 2. The schematic of solar cabinet dryer including:a) Dryer: 1- sample trays and cabinet, 2- fan, 3- chassis, 4- exhaust channel, 5- Heat exchanger, 6- doors; b) ETSC; c) Storage
tank and PCM container inside.

constructed in “Institute of Science and High Technology and
Environmental Sciences, Kerman”. To form the vacuum condition,
the air withdraws from between the tubes. Therefore the thermal
loss decreases and the energy conversion (solar to thermal) in-
creases. All the experiments were carried out with the above
mentioned solar dryer in July 2016. The main components of the
solar cabinet dryer are shown in Fig. 2.
The specifications of the main components of the dryer are
shown in Table 1. The experimental setup consists of a cabinet dryer
with a DC variable revolution fan, a heat pipe evacuated tube solar
collector and a storage tank with PCM. Water has the main role for
transmitting the thermal energy through the mentioned parts. The
fluid (water) heated inside the header of collector tube and moved
from the header of collector to the storage tank by a pump. During
the sun shine period when the fluid temperature inside the storage
tank is lower, the circulating fluid transfer its thermal energy to the
fluid and PCM inside the storage tank (Fig. 2). By the time the fluid
temperature inside the storage tank increases and delivers its
thermal energy to the circulating fluid when the fluid temperature
is low. Due to existence of thermal storage system with PCM, the
drying process can be continued during the night time. The heated
fluid moves from the storage tank to the heat exchanger installed in
the entrance of the cabinet dryer, flows through the heat pipe
evacuated collector and then comes back to the storage tank and
the circulation cycle continued. In the dryer the heat exchanger
heated by the fluid and consequently the inlet air which flows
through the heat exchanger and the dryer heated as well.
Paraffin is chemically stable, non-corrosive in a long time using
period, long life product, with good and non-changing performance
through phase change cycle [64]. The thermo-physical properties of
paraffin as PCM listed in Table 2.
For controlling the temperature of the drying systems at the
selected points a temperature controller was used. To do this pur-
pose about thirteen K type calibrated thermocouples were installed
inside and outside of the dryer. The sensors were connected to a
digital data-logger (Hioki, Japan, 32M96, with accuracy of ±0.1) and
recorded the temperature during the drying process. The position
of thermocouples showed in Fig. 3.
The environmental relative humidity was varied during the
experimental days (12e17%) and it was recorded every 30 min by a
hygrometer (HT, 3600, 0.1% accuracy, Lutron, Taiwan). For con-
trolling the insolation during the experiments a pyranometer
(KIPP&ZONEN, CMP6, Taiwan, ±4 W/m2 accuracy) was considered.
The experiments were carried out for three levels of air flow rate
(0.025, 0.05 and 0.09 kg/s). For controlling the speed of airflow rate
through the different points inside the dryer an anemometer
(Testo-454, Lutron, Taiwan) was used. The location of controlling
points is illustrated in Fig. 4.

Table 1
Specifications of the solar cabinet dryer with ETSC and PCM.

Components Details and Dimension

Evacuated tube solar Evacuate heat pipe, Model: SK-H15-45, The copper absorber tube, Inner diameter: 45 mm, Outer diameter: 58 mm, Length of tubes: 1800 mm,
collector Number of tubes: 15, Solar effective area: 1.9 m2, Inclination angle: 35o.
Heat Exchanger Model: Welo Armko, Made in Iran, With 5 mm diameter of Aluminum tube, 30 rows, the distance between the rows 10 mm thorough 320 mm ✕
383 mm
Connecting tubes PVC tube 10 mm diameter insulated with glass wool
Air ventilator A12 V DC fan (Sunon, China)
Solar dryer cabinet A 10 mm thick medium-density fiberboard (MDF) with dimensions of 1000✕600✕600 mm insulated by 40 mm thick of glasswool
Trays A rectangle perforated polyethylene with dimensions of 900 mm✕500 mm
Storage tank A cylindrical tank, stainless steel, 500 mm diameter, 600 mm height, 2 mm thickness, insulated by 40 mm thick of glasswool
Fluid circulator An Axial pump, 12 V, 10 A (NM, 32-60-180), with flow rate of 0.43 l/min
PCM Spiral copper filled with 2.95 kg paraffin RT50, with diameter of 30 mm, the length of each turn 1000 mm, number of turns 6, thickness of 1 mm
1198 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213

Table 2
Thermo Physical properties of paraffin.
!
v V ! ! 1 ! !
  !
Parameter Value þ V :V V ¼
VP þ mV2 V þ rb g T
Tref þ S (22)
vt r
Solidus temperature 317.3 K
Liquidus temperature 325 K
783 kg/m3 Where r is density (kg/m3), p is pressure (N/m2), m is dynamic
Density !
Volumetric expansion coefficient 0.00056 1/K viscosity (N.s/m2), g is acceleration of gravity (m/s2), V is velocity
Latent Heat 166 kJ/kg vector (m/s), T is temperature (K), b is Volumetric expansion co-
Thermal conductivity 0.2 W/m K !
efficient (1/K), t is time (s) and S is momentum source term (N/m)
Specific heat 2.1 kJ/kg K
which added to Eq. (22) due to phase change effect on convection.
Dynamic viscosity of the paraffin decreases with increasing tem-
perature and is as a function of temperature. It can be obtained
2.4. CFD modeling using Eq. (23):

The modeling of the thermal energy storage system is done

based on the three coupled well-known conservation equations m ¼ 0:82 e0:0155:Tpcm 325 < Tpcm < 356 (23)
including mass, momentum and energy conservation. They are
Thermal Energy Equation:
resulted in continuity equation (Eq. (21)), NaviereStokes equation
The energy equation for the thermal storage system can be
(Eq. (22) for three directions) and energy equation (Eq. (23))
expressed as follow:
[47,60].
The flow is considered unsteady, laminar, incompressible and 
three dimensional. The viscous dissipation term is considered vh vH
!  k
þ þ V: V h ¼ V: Vh (24)
negligible. vt vt rcp
Continuity equation:
Where k is thermal conductivity (W/m K), H is enthalpy (J/kg) and h
! is sensible enthalpy (J/kg). The enthalpy of the material is computed
V: V ¼ 0 (21)
as the sum of the latent heat (DH) and the sensible enthalpy (h),
Momentum equation in all direction: which can calculated as follow [74]:

Air outlet temperature

Ambient temperature

Air inlet temperature

Inside the cabinet

Data logger

Ambient temperature

Fig. 3. The position of K type Thermocouples installed in the dryer.

Fig. 4. Selected points for measuring the speed of airflow inside the cabinet.
 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213 1199

Table 3
Thermo-physical properties of material and fluid used in the storage system.

Material Thermal Properties Reference

Thermal Conductivity (W/m.K) Density (kg/m3) Specific Heat (J/kg.K)

Water 0.6 998.2 4182 Holman [69],

Steel 16.32 7995 496.4 fooladcell, Esfahan, Iran
Copper 357.7 8978 351.8 Nicico, Iran
Glass wool 0.039 27 652 Rool karan 3672, Esfahan, Iran

Table 4
ðT The properties of meshing size of the storage system and metric parameters.

h ¼ href þ cp dT; H ¼ h þ DH (25) Parameter Quality or Value

Tref Sizing mesh Fine

Min 0.00005 m
Max 0.00014 m
href is the reference enthalpy at the reference temperature Tref, is
Cell Tube: 114584, PCM: 492754, Fluid: 1548796
the latent heat content that may change between zero (as solid Min angle 39.4
phase) and 1 (as liquid phase). The liquid fraction (x) that occurs Max angle 140
during phase change between solid and liquid state can be written Pinch tolerance 0.0018
as: Inflation algorithm Pre
Mesh metric Skewness
8 Standard deviation 0.1824
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> As initial conditions, the computational domain was assumed to
>
>
>
> 0 if Tpcm < Ts be stationary at a uniform temperature. All Surface considered in
>
>
< geometry is smooth and fluid flow over it is frictionless. Ambient
1 if Tpcm > TL
x¼ (26) temperature is considered constant and the outlet pressure of the
>
>
>
> T
Ts plate was considered zero. Heat transfer coefficient of walls and
>
> if TL > Tpcm
>
> Ts
Ts environmental conditions were considered in the analysis of the
>
>
>
>
>
> plate. To obtain the good and accurate response from the CFD
>
>
: analysis there was a need to place the proper mesh for the system.
Before solving the problem all parts of the system were considered
!
By identifying the liquid fraction, S as the momentum added for meshing process. In this paper the quality of the mesh and grid
term can be defined as: checked statistically using skewness criteria. Generally, the best
mesh was related to those with the skewness of zero and the worst
! ð1
xÞ2 ! was related to meshing system with the skewness of 1 [75,76]. The
S ¼ 3
Amush V (27) fine mesh was considered for the storage tank and the reports of
x the evaluation of the meshing process showed that the skewness
for the system tank was about 0.45 and it was suitable for any
Amush is indicated as mushy zone and it is a region wherein the
progress in CFD simulation. Other parameters of the meshing size
liquid fraction lies between 0 and 1. Generally the mushy zone is
and metric parameters are indicated in Table 4. Moreover, the grid
modeled as a ‘‘pseudo’’ porous medium in which the porosity de-
independency test showed that the fine distribution grid is the
creases from 1 to 0 as the material solidifies. Amush is the mushy
most suitable mesh for this study. Table 4 illustrated the properties
zone constant and describes the kinetic process in the mushy zone
of meshing size of the storage system and metric parameters.
ordinary and it varies between 104 and 107. In the present study it
The simulations were carried out using the pressure-based
was considered as a constant value in the modeling process and it
model of Fluent, since it was reported to be suitable to model
was 105.
melting and solidification problems [58,77]. The convergence
Boundary conditions: In this simulation the initial temperature of
criteria for the scaled residuals was set to 10
4 for continuity and
the whole system was considered based on environmental tem-
momentum equations, and 10
5 for the energy equation.
perature. Problem is considered 3D and steady state. The fluid
The system consisted of a charging loop, which transferred heat
pattern is very important during the thermal process and since the
from the hot water to the PCM in the storage system during the
conditions in the whole drying process are very minor thus it can be
charging process. The data acquisition system consisted of an array
neglected. The fluid flow rate was 0.43 l/min. In all cases the Rey-
of K-type thermocouples, data logger and personal computer sys-
nolds number was lower than 2000, thus the fluid flow showed a
tem to measure and record temperatures in the PCM and the fluid
laminar pattern inside the storage system. In order to solve the
flows through the storage system. About seven thermocouples
governing equations, suitable boundary and initial conditions have
were considered in the storage system to measure temperature
to be applied. In this study the charging and discharging process of
variations. The location of the thermocouples is shown in Fig. 5.
the storage system was considered. On the inlet side of the wall
Temperature was recorded every 30 min.
temperature of PCM, the fluid temperature and fluid flow rate were
Ansys e Fluent software is one of the widely used software for
selected. The velocity was as an average value calculated from the
thermal and fluid flow analyzing. In this study for CFD analysis of
mass flow rate of the inlet fluid. The container wall was taken as
the thermal storage system, a three dimensional model using
stationary walls with insulation. On PCM, external surfaces were
ANSYS software (ANSYS workbench with within 14.0.0) was
taken as stationary walls with identified heat flux for copper ma-
created. The 3D modeling of the storage system was imported to
terial. The thermo-physical detail of the material and fluid used in
ANSYS ICEM, and the meshing was done using appropriate grid
CFD analysis were displayed in Table 3.
1200 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213
Fig. 5. Selected points for controlling the variation of temperature through the storage
system with PCM.
cells which are available in the toolbox. Fig. 6 illustrated the mesh
modeled of the storage system. The next step was the specification
of the boundary conditions which included at the solid and the
fluid regions. This process was carried out through the solution
section.
In this case, CFD simulation of cabinet dryer was conducted as
well. One of the main parameters which affects on the simulation of
the dryer is Reynolds number. Therefore it was calculated for
different conditions of drying process. Due to the higher value of
Reynolds number (Re > 2000) which was obtained from different
conditions, turbulent models were considered in CFD simulation
and the appropriate model was selected [78]. The effect of fluid
viscosity, buoyancy and turbulence must be considered for simu-
lation process to get the detailed and accurate picture of air dis-
tribution and heat transfer trough the drying system. k - ε model is
one of the most reliable models that exist. The model has two
transport equations which describe the turbulent phenomenon in
CFD simulation. k - ε model is as successful model which is widely
used and validated with applications in agricultural and industrial
flows (Ambekar et al., 2016 [79]; Shih et al., 1995). The two
mentioned transport turbulent equations for CFD modeling are
indicated as follow:
" # conditions.
v v v m vk
ðrkÞ þ ðrkui Þ ¼ mþ t þ Gk þ Gb
rε
YM
vt vxi vxj sk vxj

Sk
(28)
Fig. 6. The 3D mesh of storage tank and spiral PCM inside the tank.
" #
v v v m vε ε
ðrεÞ þ ðrεui Þ ¼ mþ t þ C1ε ðGk þ C3ε Gb Þ
vt vxi vxj sε vxj k
ε2

C2ε r þ Sε
k
(29)
The CFD model of the dryer was developed using Ansys e Fluent
(ANSYS workbench within 14.0.0). Typically it was used to deter-
mine the performance of the designed dryer. First of all three
dimensional geometry of the dryer was modeled based on the
measurements of the actual size using DESIGN subprogram. The 3D
model imported to ANSYS ICEM and the meshing grid was created
based on the quality assessments (Fig. 7). By importing the
boundary conditions and the input parameters including air mass
flow rate, inlet fluid temperature, ambient temperature and wall
heat transfer coefficient, flow-simulating computation of the model
was carried out. In this study Hexa type element with fine grid
distribution and Tetra type element with fine grid distribution was
considered for fluid and solid meshing, respectively which included
more than 245,000 nodes for the fluid and more than 125,000 for
the trays.
Table 5 illustrated the properties of meshing size of the dryer
and metric parameters. The quality investigation of the meshing
process was performed considering the grid independency test and
skewness. Different mesh sizes were used to test the grid inde-
pency test. Base on the average outlet temperature of the dryer, the
fine mesh was selected to simulate the dryer. Moreover, the mesh
skewness was checked for cabinet during simulation process. For
the fine mesh it was lower than 0.48 which is suitable for CFD
simulation.
During the simulation process some boundaries were investi-
gated such as: a) the steady state condition, b) energy equation and
c) K-ε of viscous model. For all the analysis the data was recorded at
30 min time interval from 8:00 to 24:00 O'clock. The fluid flowing
through the cabinet was the air with three levels of 0.025, 0.05 and
0.09 kg/s and it was considered as normal to the boundaries. The
thermo physical properties of air assumed to be constant and they
were 1.225 kg/m3, 0.0242 W/m.K and 1006 J/kg.K for density,
thermal conductivity and specific heat, respectively. Heat transfer
coefficients were defined for the chamber walls and environmental
In the current study the number iteration for simulation was set
about 1500. From one iteration to the next, the results (considering
temperature, pressure and velocity) at the grid changes and the
difference between two iterations occurred. The difference called
residual value. The residual value, determines when a solution is
 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213 1201

Fig. 7. The grid cells of cabinet dryer and the trays.

Table 5 To reduce the possible impact of shade and light noises on the
The properties of meshing size of the dryer and metric parameters. images the background was colored black. Images were stored in
Parameter Quality or Value JPEG graphic format, imported to the Matlab V2013 software and
analyzed using “Image Processing subprogram of Matlab”. The
Sizing mesh Fine
Min 0.000214 m software evaluated the intensity of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) in
Max 0.0035 m the range of 0e255 for each pixel and calculated the average per-
Cell 245764 for fluid, 125342 for solid centage of mentioned colors on sample area. The difference be-
Min angle 39.2
tween the fresh sample and the dried one was estimated by Eq.
Max angle 140
Pinch tolerance 0.00098
(26).
Inflation algorithm Pre qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Mesh metric Skewness
DERGB ¼ ðR
R0 Þ2 þ ðG
G0 Þ2 þ ðB
B0 Þ2 (31)
Standard deviation 0.14587

The other parameter for quality assessment of the dried samples

converged and it is taken as a measure for convergence. In the
present work the set value for the convergence was 10
4 and when
it fell below 10
4 the solving process has stopped. By getting the
proper converged results and proper iteration, the airflow distri-
bution and heat transfer inside the solar air collector have been
plotted in the form of contour and streamline plots.
The relative error method was used as validated index for
illustrating the difference between experimental and predicted
data (Eq. (25)) [2,80,81]:
The rehydration ratio is the third quality parameter which was
Dpre
Dexp
is Shrinkage. This parameter is referred to the variation of volume,
surface or thickness during drying process and influences on
diffusion coefficient. Determination of experimental shrinkage of
dried products allows the prediction of physical parameters [82].
The details of shrinkage measurement as well as the method were
described in Samimi-Akhijahani and Arabhosseini, [9].
The shrinkage of apple slices calculated using Eq. (27):
V
Sb ¼ 1
(32)
V0

Er ð%Þ ¼  100
Dpre
2.5. Quality of dried product considerations
Quality consideration is one of the main parameters to evaluate
the marketable of dried product. On the other hand it was per-
formed to show the effect of using the new method on the quality
of the products and if the result was undesirable, the use of the
method to dry the product was not recommended. For this purpose
the dried apple slices were placed at room temperature in stable
conditions for an hour and the quality parameters of each sample
were captured. All of the quality parameters were performed in five
replications.
For the first parameter the RGB color parameters were consid-
ered. The color parameters were evaluated for the samples dried in
cabinet solar dryer with and without PCM at three levels of air flow
rates. The imaging system contains a wooden box with the di-
mensions of 400  400  600 mm, a digital camera with 10 mega
pixels resolution (Canon A3200 IS, Japan). Also for lighting the
wooden box with homogeneous condition two 23 Watt fluorescent.
(30) investigated in this study. It is referred to the ability of the dried
samples to absorb water. About 20 g of dried apple slices were
weighed and submerged in a beaker containing 500 ml of water
(which is distilled) at boiling temperature for 5 min. The beaker was
insulated by 10 mm glasswool to reduce the heat transfer. After
5 min the dried samples which placed in the water withdraw after a
specified time, dried with tissue paper and weighed again [83,84].
The rehydration ratio (RR) was obtained by dividing the rehydrated
weight (Wr) by initial weight (Wd) [9]:

Wr
RR ¼ (33)
Wd
3. Results and discussion
Fig. 8 shows the variations of solar incident for drying system
during the experimental days. The amount of solar radiation in-
creases with the time and reaches its maximum level at around
14:00 and then decreases. The mean solar radiation was fluctuating
during the experimental days and varied from 45 to 850 W/m2. The
variation of solar radiation during the drying days is not significant.
1202 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213

900 W PCM, 0.025 kg/s The variations of the temperature of the dryer, ambient tem-
W PCM, 0.05 kg/s
800 W PCM, 0.09 kg/s perature and relative humidity versus the local time during test
WO PCM, 0.025 kg/s
700 WO PCM, 0.05 kg/s days are shown in Fig. 9. The average cabinet temperature changes
Solar radiation(W.m-2)

WO PCM, 0.09 kg/s with the intensity of solar radiation, but with a slight delay. Due to
600
500
the presence of the PCM inside the storage tank some of the ther-
400
mal energy used for co-ordination process of the fluid and PCM
material. Therefore the cabinet temperature for early hours of the
300
day was lower (about 0.5e2.5  C) than the other case without PCM.
200
By variation of solar radiation, the ambient temperature changes as
100
well. The maximum cabinet temperature was 69  C at the air flow
0
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
rate of 0.025 kg/s, without PCM, with the solar intensity of the
Time (Hour) 854 W/m2 and the ambient air temperature of 35.7  C. The relative
Fig. 8. Variation of solar radiation for W PCM, WO PCM at three airflow rates (0.025, humidity of the environment varied from 14.4 to 21.4% during the
0.05 and 0.09 kg/s). drying days. The cabinet temperature after the sun set (considering
solar radiations) due to have the PCM inside the storage tank was
higher than the other system without PCM. By reducing the solar

70 W PCM, 0.025 kg/s

W PCM, 0.05 kg/s
W PCM, 0.09 kg/s
WO PCM, 0.025 kg/s
60
WO PCM, 0.05 kg/s
WO PCM, 0.09 kg/s
Temperature (oC)

50

40

30

20
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Local Time (hr)

40 Ambient Temperature 25
Relative Humidity
35
20
Relative Humidity (%)
Temperature (oC)

30
15
25
10
20

5
15

10 0
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Local Time (hr)

b
Fig. 9. a) Variations of the air temperature inside the cabinet at different drying conditions versus the local time: with PCM and without PCM and three levels of air mass flow, b)
Variations of mean ambient temperature and relative humidity during the experimental days versus the local time.
 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213 1203

1 1
0.025 kg/s 0.05 kg/s
0.9 0.9 WOPCM
0.8 0.8 WPCM
0.7 WOPCM 0.7
WPCM
0.6 0.6

MR
MR

0.5 0.5
0.4 0.4

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0

120
180
240
300
360
420
480
540
600
660
720
780
840
900
0
30
60
120
180
240
300
360
420
480
540
600
660
720
780
840
900
960
0
30
60

Time (min) Time (min)

1
0.09 kg/s
0.9
WOPCM
0.8
WPCM
0.7
0.6
MR

0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 30 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 480 540 600 660 720 780 840 900
Time (min)

Fig. 10. Variations of moisture ratio versus drying time of apple slices at three levels of air flow rate for the solar cabinet dryer with and without PCM.

radiation, the ambient temperature reduced as well and the stored
energy in PCM element released. This condition helps to maintain
the dryer temperature at the higher level.
The variation of MR versus the drying time for solar dryer with
and Without PCM showed in Fig. 10. Moreover the Figure presents
the variations of the drying process for three levels of air flow rates
(0.025, 0.05 and 0.09 kg/s). At the beginning of the experiment for
all levels of air flow rates, the drying rate of apple slices was low. By
increasing the solar radiation from 45 to 850 W/m2 the drying
process increases. Due to the presence of more free water inside the
samples and higher thermal energy which absorbed by the col-
lector the drying rate increases. By the time the solar radiation
decreases and the time consumed for evaporation the moisture
from the samples increases.
Typically, the dehydration process of the agricultural products
with higher moisture content such as apple slices takes place in two
different stages. In the first stage the moisture removal from the
slices is higher due to more moisture on the surface of the samples.
Some of the thermal energy is used to evaporate moisture from the
surface and the other remaining thermal energy is transferred to
the interior of the samples to increase the temperature. At this
condition there is a capillary force between the internal water
molecules of the samples and this force helps to the internal mass
transfer. Thus the mass transfer occurs at the surface part [14]. In
the second stage (known as the falling rate), due to the lack of the
capillary force, mass transfer occurs on the surface of the apple
slices. Other studies on the solar drying of the apple slices reported
the same results [83,84].
The drying time required for apple slices dried by WPCM was
varied from 810 to 870 min to reach the desired moisture content. It
was decreased with increasing air flow rate from 0.025 kg/s to
0.09 kg/s. As shown in Fig. 10, the drying time for WOPCM was
varied from 900 to 960 min. In the other hand using PCM inside the
storage tank reduces the drying time about 9.37%, 9.67% and 10.02%
for the air flow rates of 0.025, 0.05 and 0.09 kg/s, respectively. The
effect of using PCM on drying time was more significant than the air
flow rate. Thus, using PCM reduces the drying time for all levels of
air flow rates.
Fig. 11 illustrated that at the initial stage of drying process, due
to the unbound moisture near the surface of the samples, removing
water from them is higher and the major part of the drying process
occurs at the first falling rate phase. In the other hand moisture
removal due to capillarity movement, liquid diffusion and vapor
diffusion is easier at the beginning of the drying process. Due to
evaporate free moisture from the fruit surface the shrinkage phe-
nomenon occurs as well. By the time the drying rate of the samples
decreases due to lower thermal energy. With increasing the solar
radiation, the air temperature inside the cabinet increased and the
drying rate increases as well. The drying rate for the apple slice
reduced due to decrease the solar radiation and it has
1204 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213

2.5 0.025 kg/s 3

0.05 kg/s
Drying rate x 10-3 (g watter/g dry

Drying rate x 10-3 (g watter/g dry

2.5
2 WOPCM WOPCM

WPCM 2 WPCM
matter.min)

matter.min)
1.5
1.5
1
1

0.5
0.5

0 0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 0 200 400 600 800 1000
Time (min) Time (min)

3
0.09 kg/s
Drying rate x 10-3 (g watter/g dry

2.5
WOPCM

2 WPCM
matter.min)

1.5

0.5

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Time (min)

Fig. 11. Variation of drying rate versus drying time for apple slices at different air flow rates for two cases: With PCM(WPCM) and without PCM(WOPCM).

approximately constant slope for the different conditions. Similar illustrated in Fig. 13. According to this figure with the same air flow
results are reported by the other researchers [8,14,83,85]. The rate, the overall efficiency of the drying system with the PCM is
drying rate of the slices at the last times when the PCM system higher than the other without PCM. Also it can be seen that the
releases its energy to the storage system is higher than the other drying efficiency for both cases: WPCM and WOPCM reduced by
without PCM. Therefore longer drying time was recorded for the increasing the air mass flow rate from 0.025 to 0.09 kg/s. This may
samples dried in the dryer without PCM. be due to the loss of more thermal energy from the system to the
The variation of thermal energy entered to the drying cabinet at environment. The best drying efficiency was recorded at 0.025 kg/s
three air flow rates with and without using PCM inside the storage in case of using PCM inside the storage tank and it was 39.9%. The
system is shown in Fig. 12(a). The input thermal energy increased lowest was related to the dryer without PCM at the air flow rate of
and then decreased by increasing and decreasing solar radiation. 0.09 kg/s and it was 32.1%. Similar results were reported in the
For all levels of air flow rates the value of input thermal energy studies which carried out by Saman et al., [86];, Sharafeldin and
increased. With increasing air flow rates from 0.025 to 0.05 kg/s Gyula, 2018; Jain and Tewari, [87]; Ersoz, [88]; Cakmak and Yildiz,
using PCM increased input thermal energy and then decreased by [5].
increasing the air flow rates from 0.05 to 0.09 kg/s in compare with The variations of thermal efficiency of ETSC versus drying air
the other system without PCM. The values of overall input thermal flow rates (0.025, 0.05 and 0.009 kg/s) illustrated in Fig. 14. The
energy to the drying system versus different drying conditions are thermal efficiency varies from 32.4% to 59.9%, 34.2% to 62.6 and
shown Fig. 12b. The highest value (43.47 MJ) and lowest value 35.1%e64.9% for the mass flow rates of 0.025 kg/s, 0.05 kg/s and
(16.19 MJ) was related to the drying system with the air flow rates of 0.09 kg/s, respectively. The maximum energy efficiency (64.9%) was
0.09 kg/s and 0.025 kg/s, respectively. Using PCM increases the related to 0.09 kg/s due to the higher thermal energy discharging
input thermal energy about 1.72% and 5.12% compared to the dryer rate of the fluid which occurs with increasing mass flow rate. By
without PCM for the air flow rates of 0.025 and 0.05 kg/s respec- increasing the solar radiation the energy stored in the fluid in-
tively, but it decreases about 1.5% for 0.09 kg/s. creases as well and the demand for discharging the thermal energy
Considering the input thermal energy, input electrical energy from the collector is higher related to the other state. Therefore by
(Fan and Pump) and the output energy from the dryer, the overall increasing the air mass flow rate inside the cabinet dryer, the
efficiency of the drying system can be estimated using Eq. (16) and thermal power discharging increased and the energy loss from the
 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213 1205

3.5 W PCM, 0.025 kg/s

W PCM, 0.05 kg/s
a W PCM, 0.09 kg/s
3
WO PCM, 0.025 kg/s

Input Thermal Energy (MJ)

WO PCM, 0.05 kg/s
2.5 WO PCM, 0.09 kg/s

1.5

0.5

0
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Local Time (hr)

50
Overall input thermal energy (MJ)

b
40

30

20

10

0
W PCM, W PCM, W PCM, WO PCM, WO PCM, WO PCM,
0.025 kg/s 0.05 kg/s 0.09 kg/s 0.025 kg/s 0.05 kg/s 0.09 kg/s
Drying condition
Fig. 12. The variation of a) input thermal energy versus drying time and b) overall input thermal energy versus drying conditions.

40 70
35 65
Overall efficiency (%)

30 60
25
Efficiency (%)

55
20
50
15 0.025 kg/s
45 0.05 kg/s
10
40 0.09 kg/s
5
35
0
W PCM, W PCM, W PCM, WO PCM, WO PCM, WO PCM, 30
0.025 kg/s 0.05 kg/s 0.09 kg/s 0.025 kg/s 0.05 kg/s 0.09 kg/s 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Drying condition Local Time (hr)
Fig. 13. The calculated overall drying efficiency with respect to the drying condition Fig. 14. Variation of thermal efficiency of ETSC during the day time for three air mass
(different air flow rates, with and without PCM). flow rates.
1206 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213

W PCM
Charging
WO PCM
Charging
0.5 0.5

0 0
7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23
Stored Energy (MJ)

Stored Energy (MJ)

-0.5 -0.5

-1 -1

-1.5 -1.5

Discharging Discharging
-2 -2
Local Time (hr) Local Time (hr)

Stored In PCM
0.2

0.15
Charging
0.1
Stored Energy (MJ)

0.05

0
7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23
-0.05

-0.1

-0.15
Discharging
-0.2
Local Time (hr)

Fig. 15. Variations of stored energy in storage tank with and without PCM inside the tank.

collector decreased. The effect of using PCM had no efficient effect
on the thermal efficiency of the ETSC.
The variation of mean values of stored energy inside the storage
tank with PCM and without PCM showed in Fig. 15. With increasing
the solar radiation the values of stored energy increased and then
decreased until 20:00 O'clock when the solar radiation is the very
low. This section named charging process (as mentioned in Fig. 15)
which is part of thermal energy (obtained from ETSC) stored in the
storage system (water and PCM). The higher value of stored energy
has occurred at 14:00 O'clock for WPCM and WOPCM system. After
the sunset, the heat transfer operation reversed and the heat
transferred from the storage tank to the heat exchanger. This sec-
tion named discharging process which is the part of thermal energy
enters to the dryer. Over the time, due to reduction in the ambient
temperature, the rate of discharging energy increased. The overall
thermal energy stored in the charging part was about 7.03 MJ and
6.25 MJ for the system with and without PCM, respectively. On the
other hand, during the discharging process the released energy
from the storage system was about 6.54 MJ and 5.90 MJ for WPCM
and WOPCM, respectively. The stored energy in the PCM was
0.654 MJ and 0.540 MJ for charging and discharging section.
Fig. 16 indicated the temperature contours inside the heat
storage system including PCM simulated by CFD. In this figure the
charging process is shown at 14:00 o'clock for the air velocity of
0.025 kg/s during the highest solar radiation. The contours showed
that the fluid with higher temperature entered to the storage tank
charges the fluid and PCM inside the tank (Fig. 16a). It can be seen
some of the thermal energy losses from the walls of the storage
tank (Fig. 16b). Fig. 16 also showed the variations of temperature
around the surface of the PCM. By passing the fluid through the
spiral tube, the heat absorbed by the PCM increases the PCM
temperature (Fig. 16c). The minimum temperature was obtained at
the bottom of the PCM container while the maximum temperature
was recorded at the top of PCM container where the fluid tem-
perature is high. The difference between the top and bottom was
about 1.7  C.
Similar results of CFD simulation for temperature contours in-
side the heat storage system including PCM is illustrated in Fig. 17.
 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213 1207

a b

Fig. 16. Contours for temperature at 14:00 for the storage tank including PCM at the airflow rate of 0.025 kg/s (charging process).

In the figure the discharging process is shown at 20:00 o'clock for
the air velocity of 0.025 kg/s during the lowest solar radiation. The
fluid with lower temperature entered to the tank and flows through
the container (Fig. 17 a,b). Due to higher temperature inside the
tank related to the environment, the temperature of the fluid in-
creases and the thermal energy stored in the PCM released to the
fluid. It can be seen from Fig. 17 (a) the thermal contours around the
PCM is relatively higher than the other sections (about 5e7  C). The
thermal energy which obtained from the fluid and the PCM in the
storage tank move toward the heat exchanger, increases the inlet
air temperature consumed for drying the product. The thermal
contours in Fig. 17c indicated the variations of PCM temperature
during discharging process. These results are in agreement with the
results reported for the similar work [60].
The other result of CFD simulation for velocity streamlines and
temperature contours inside the cabinet dryer with PCM inside the
storage tank is shown in Fig. 18. The figure indicated the charging
process at 14:00 o'clock for the air velocity of 0.025 kg/s when there
is the highest solar radiation. By moving the fluid through the dryer,
the thermal energy absorbed by solid materials (walls, glass wool
and trays) and then exhausted to the ambient at the outlet. The
higher temperature value was related to the inlet section (69.2  C)
where the heat was generated by heat exchanger and the lower
value was related to the cabinet walls (48.2  C). Moreover the
distribution of velocity streamlines through the cabinet drying
system when the inlet air velocity was 0.025 kg/s is shown in
Fig. 18. There is a turbulent air flow distribution at the bottom of the
dryer. By using the other outlet channel at the other section of the
dryer may be more thermal energy could be saved for the drying
process.
Similarly, Fig. 19 illustrated the results of CFD simulation, ve-
locity streamlines and temperature contours inside the cabinet
dryer during the discharging process at 20:00 o'clock for the air
velocity of 0.025 kg/s when there is no solar radiation, with PCM.
The maximum and minimum temperature was 42.3  C and 22.1  C
related to the inlet and cabinet walls. The results are in agreement
with the results obtained by the other researchers [48,50].
The comparison between the predicted data obtained by CFD
simulation and experimental data for the outlet fluid temperature
of the storage tank with and without PCM is shown in Fig. 20 (a, b).
It is clear that the selected CFD model predicted the thermal
behavior of the fluid inside the storage system with and without
PCM with higher precision (R2 > 0.95). The level of temperate
predicted by CFD simulation is higher than the level of experi-
mental values. The difference between the data is may be due to the
environmental and material conditions that has affected on the
outlet fluid temperature. The relative error for predicted and
experimental data varies from 2.9% to 6.7% and it is acceptable
1208 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213

a b

Fig. 17. Contours for temperature at 20:00 for the storage tank and PCM at the airflow rate of 0.025 kg/s (discharging process).

based on the other studies which reported similar results for solar
system [89]; Fertahi et al., 2018; [2,81]. The level of temperature
predicted by CFD simulation was higher than the level of experi-
mental values and the difference is due to the environmental and
material conditions that has effect on outlet temperature. The
figure also presented the comparison of drying air temperature
inside the cabinet between the predicted and experimental data at
three levels of air flow rates with PCM inside the storage tank. The
simulated data which predicted by CFD simulation are higher about
5.3e8.4% than experimental data (Fig. 20 c).
The results of quality changes considering color, Shrinkage and
rehydration ratio of the dried samples will be described in this
section. All the results summarized in Table 6 and it can be seen
that there is no significant difference (p > 0.05) between the sample
dried by the dryer with PCM and without PCM in the storage tank.
Also the effect of air flow rate on the quality of dried apple slices
was significant as well. The color is the most important attribute of
the dried samples and it reflects a sensation to the human eye.
Almost the first factor for selecting and buying the product is the
visual examination. Generally, the time consumed for drying of
agricultural products significantly affected on the color quality of
the products [85,90,91]. The variation of color changes for the
drying system without PCM is higher than the other with PCM. The
color quality of the samples dried in front of the sun due to the
longer drying time and the direct exposure of the apple surfaces to
solar radiations is lower than the others dried in cabinet solar dryer.
The same result reported by Ref. [92]. Table 6 also showed that the
samples dried by WOPCM system due to the lack of PCM inside of
the storage system, the mean drying temperature inside the dryer
after the sunset decreases. The time consumed for drying of apple
slices (especially at the final period) and the duration time inside
the dryer increased thus the shrinkage of the dried samples in-
creases as well. These results are in agreement with the results
reported by the other works [82,85,93]. Rehydration ratio is widely
used to indicate the physical and chemical changes of dried prod-
ucts [2]. It is influenced by different factors such as product
composition, microstructure, temperature and drying time and
drying method. Rehydration ratio of the samples dried by WPCM
system is higher than the others dried by WOPCM system or dried
in front of the sun. Samples dried with longer drying time need
more time to get back to the initial matter content. At this condition
the cells and structure of dried product destructed, the space be-
tween the pores eliminated and the time for getting back of the
initial size increases [84,94,95]. Considering the other works on
drying of different products similar results are reported [83,91,96].
The quality evaluation of dried apple samples and comparison
between the other drying methods of the apple slices
[84,94,95,97e100] indicated that using solar system with PCM has
no adverse effect. Therefore, by considering the economical and
quality issues it is stated that the solar drying system assisted with
PCM as a cheap and efficient method can used for drying of Agri-
cultural products [101].
 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213 1209

a b

Fig. 18. Temperature contours of a) the walls, b) midplane and c) Streamlines of the cabinet for and air velocity distribution at 14:00 p.m. for the airflow rate of 0.025 kg/s.

Fig. 19. Temperature Contours and Streamlines for the midplane and wall of the cabinet dryer at 20:00 p.m. for airflow rate of 0.025 kg/s.

To compare the effect of different methods for drying of apple 4. Conclusion

samples some picture was depicted in Fig. 21. For the solar dryer it
was with and without PCM at the air flow rate of 0.025 kg/s. Also
the initial shape of sample and the sample dried in front of the sun
are shown in the figure. The quality of the apple slice dried with
PCM and Without PCM are the same and both were better than the
samples dried in front of the sun.
A simulation and experimental investigation was carried out to
obtain the thermal performance and efficiency consideration of a
solar cabinet dryer equipped with heat pipe evacuated tube solar
collector and thermal storage system. Also the thermal behavior
and temperature distribution inside the storage system using PCM
1210 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213

80 WPCM 90
WOPCM
a 80 b
70

Predicted Data by CFD

Predicted Data by CFD

70
60
60
50
50
40 0.025 kg/s 0.025 kg/s
0.05 kg/s 40
0.05 kg/s
0.09 kg/s 0.09 kg/s
30 Linear (0.09 kg/s) 30
Trendline Linear (0.05 kg/s)
Trendline

20 20
20 40 60 80 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Experimental Data Experimental Data

80 WPCM for cabinet

c
70
Predicted Data by CFD

60

0.025 kg/s
50
0.05 kg/s
0.09 kg/s
40
Trendline
Linear (0.09 kg/s)
30

20
20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Experimental Data

Fig. 20. Experimental versus predicted outlet fluid temperature for the storage system with (a) and without (b) PCM and the drying air temperature inside the cabinet (C) at
different levels of air mass flow rates (0.025, 0.05 and 0.09 kg/s).

Table 6
The calculated quality parameters of apple slices dried with various drying modes.

Drying mode Quality parameter

Airflow rate (kg/s) With or Without PCM Color (DE) Shrinkage (%) RR

0.025 WPCM 13.52 ± 0.68 81.11 ± 0.91 4.46 ± 0.11

WOPCM 14.08 ± 0.64 82.23 ± 1.07 4.42 ± 0.08
0.05 WPCM 12.02 ± 0.39 80.41 ± 0.73 4.56 ± 0.12
WOPCM 13.14 ± 0.64 80.05 ± 1.61 4.50 ± 0.10
0.09 WPCM 11.76 ± 0.75 79.06 ± 0.65 4.58 ± 0.09
WOPCM 12.35 ± 0.81 78.94 ± 1.24 4.60 ± 0.05
In front the sun 25.77 ± 0.89 84.87 ± 2.25 3.92 ± 0.19

was investigated. Apple slices with the thickness of 5 mm were
selected to describe drying process and thermal performance of the
drying system. Three air flow rates of 0.025, 0.05 and 0.09 kg/s was
selected for drying of apple slices. The results illustrated that using
PCM inside the storage tank reduces the drying time about 9.37%,
9.67% and 10.02% for the air flow rates of 0.025, 0.05 and 0.09 kg/s,
respectively related to the other system without PCM. Using PCM
increases the input thermal energy about 1.72% and 5.12% for the air
flow rates of 0.025 and 0.05 kg/s respectively, but excessive increase
in air flow rate (up to 0.09 kg/s) decreases input thermal energy.
Increasing the air mass flow rate decreases the overall drying effi-
ciency. The maximum overall drying efficiency was 39.9% related to
the system with PCM at the air flow rate of 0.025 kg/s. CFD simu-
lation was applied to the system to predicts the heat flux and
thermal changes during the drying process inside the storage tank.
There is a good agreement between the simulated and experi-
mental data at different air flow rates. The quality consideration
(regarding to the color, shrinkage and rehydration) of dried apples
 M. Iranmanesh et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 1192e1213 1211

Initial shape Open sun drying W.PCM W.O.PCM

Fig. 21. Color differences of the apple slices between four cases: fresh sample with initial shape, after drying with and without PCM and drying in front of the sun.

dried by the dryer with PCM showed the higher quality than the Drying characteristics and kinetics solar drying of Moroccan rosemary
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