CFD simulation of corn drying in a natural convection solar dryer

ABSTRACT

A computational fluid dynamics model was developed to simulate the corn drying process in a solar cabinet dryer. Incident solar radiation was modeled using a dual-band spectrum to simulate the absorption of shortwave radiation by corn and account for the greenhouse effect caused by glazing materials. The performance of the dryer was simulated at fair and overcast weather conditions. The model allowed visualization of temperature, humidity, and air velocity profiles in the dryer. The model was validated with experimental results, which showed an overprediction of temperature (8.5%) and humidity (21.4%). The experimental humidity profile suggests that there was stagnation in the airflow of the dryer, which was accurately predicted by the model. The model was used to simulate the dryer’s performance under overcast conditions, and the predicted moisture removal was 32% less than the simulated fair-weather case.

KEYWORDS:

• Air velocity profile
• computational fluid dynamics
• corn
• solar dryer