No-load Testing of the Modified Auxiliary Heating System for BAU Solar Chimney Dryer

Authors

  • Nibir Kanti Roy Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University and Graduate Student, Department of Biosystems Engineering, Auburn University, USA
  • Nusrat Jahan Nipa Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymesningh-2202, Bangladesh
  • Jakia Khatun Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymesningh-2202, Bangladesh
  • Nishat Tasnim Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymesningh-2202, Bangladesh
  • Surajit Sarkar Coordinator, AgroMech Development Initiative Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Md. Abu Hanif Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymesningh-2202, Bangladesh
  • Chayan Kumer Saha Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymesningh-2202, Bangladesh

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61361/jambe.v8i2.127

Keywords:

Auxiliary heating, Electric heater, Automation, Solar dryer, No-load performance

Abstract

Experimental analysis was conducted to evaluate the performance of a modified electric auxiliary heating system for a natural convection solar dryer without load. The dryer operated using heat from two sources for drying operation. This study focused on describing the temperature profile inside the dryer and the airflow velocity of the modified auxiliary heating system at no-load. Microcontroller (ESP32) automation was integrated within the auxiliary heating system to maintain the recommended temperature range for drying agricultural products. The experiment was conducted during low sunshine season and the maximum solar radiation was 336.56 W/m2. The average airflow velocity from each column of holes was found to be in the range of 2.33 m/s to 2.80 m/s. From the test, the obtained drying temperature was sufficiently higher above ambient air temperature to continue drying. A maximum rise of 29.7 °C above ambient was found at 2.00 pm. The second drying chamber had slightly high temperature values due to the stagnancy of hot air in it. The auxiliary heater showed promising performance towards a weather-independent drying operation. However, it needs to be improved in capacity to raise the air temperature to the required range. Further study on the dryer design for better exhaustion system alongside uniform airflow rate is also recommended. Integrating IoT-based solutions will make the drying process smarter and reduce drudgeries during the operation.

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Published

2024-12-07

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 2 (2024)

Section

Original Research

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Authors and Journal of Agricultural Machinery and Bioresources Engineering

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Journal of Agricultural Machinery and Bioresources Engineering (JAMBE) is an Open Access journal. All articles in the JAMBE are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY-4.0). This license permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.