TY - JOUR
T1 - A new air recirculation system for homogeneous solar drying
T2 - Computational fluid dynamics approach
AU - Román-Roldán, N. I.
AU - Ituna Yudonago, J. F.
AU - López-Ortiz, A.
AU - Rodríguez-Ramírez, J.
AU - Sandoval-Torres, S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Improvement of air flow distribution, air velocity and temperature inside a mixed greenhouse dryer was numerically investigated using 3D CFD ANSYS FLUENT code. The study was performed considering six different locations of axial fans inside the greenhouse. Additional elements such as a false ceiling and front and back internal walls were included in some configurations to analyze their contribution in improving the air distribution. Numerical simulations were focused on dynamic fluid models in order to select the best configuration to achieve homogeneous air distribution and velocity among the six proposals. Then, the temperature distribution was analyzed considering the contribution of solar energy in the best-selected greenhouse configuration. Additionally, the Discrete Ordinate (DO) model was used to simulate the mechanism of heat transfer from solar radiation to the greenhouse. The results showed that installing an air recirculation system (including: axial fan, false ceiling, back and front walls), into the greenhouse can increase the air velocity in the drying chamber from 0.71 m/s to 1.5 m/s and the temperature from 315 K to 360 K, which represent an increase of approximately 111.26% y 11.11%, respectively, compared with the greenhouse without an air recirculation system. This improvement could result in the reduction of drying time and a homogeneous moisture content in dry products.
AB - Improvement of air flow distribution, air velocity and temperature inside a mixed greenhouse dryer was numerically investigated using 3D CFD ANSYS FLUENT code. The study was performed considering six different locations of axial fans inside the greenhouse. Additional elements such as a false ceiling and front and back internal walls were included in some configurations to analyze their contribution in improving the air distribution. Numerical simulations were focused on dynamic fluid models in order to select the best configuration to achieve homogeneous air distribution and velocity among the six proposals. Then, the temperature distribution was analyzed considering the contribution of solar energy in the best-selected greenhouse configuration. Additionally, the Discrete Ordinate (DO) model was used to simulate the mechanism of heat transfer from solar radiation to the greenhouse. The results showed that installing an air recirculation system (including: axial fan, false ceiling, back and front walls), into the greenhouse can increase the air velocity in the drying chamber from 0.71 m/s to 1.5 m/s and the temperature from 315 K to 360 K, which represent an increase of approximately 111.26% y 11.11%, respectively, compared with the greenhouse without an air recirculation system. This improvement could result in the reduction of drying time and a homogeneous moisture content in dry products.
KW - Air velocity
KW - CFD
KW - Fluent
KW - Greenhouse
KW - Homogeneous temperature
KW - Solar energy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112004513&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.renene.2021.07.134
DO - 10.1016/j.renene.2021.07.134
M3 - Artículo
AN - SCOPUS:85112004513
SN - 0960-1481
VL - 179
SP - 1727
EP - 1741
JO - Renewable Energy
JF - Renewable Energy
ER -
