CFD and experimental analysis of direct solar dryer for fish

Fish preservation is the most important post-harvest process in commercial fishery. The traditional methods of fish preservation are inefficient and susceptible to contamination. Few existing solar fish dryers are not designed for optimal drying performance. In this study, a direct solar dryer for fish was numerically modelled, fabricated and evaluated for performance enhancement. The modeling was performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code to simulate different dimensions of the designed dryer at varying fan speeds. By applying desirability function method, (70 × 60 × 40) cm3 drying chamber with a plane of 25 cm away from the base for tray location gives optimal temperature and the best uniform air flow distribution. The performance of the fabricated dryer using the numerical model results was experimentally evaluated during the dry season and the wet season of the year without load. Maximum collector efficiency of 77.2% and temperature elevation of 26.7o C was observed at natural convection (0 m/s fan speed) for both seasons. Using RMSE and MBE, predictions are within acceptable limit (10%) and there were no significant differences between the experimental and numerically predicted values by statistical t-test (p ≤ 0.05) at fan speeds considered.Keywords: direct solar dryer, CFD, optimal temperature, collector efficienc