Desalination 168 (2004) 111–115

Simulation model for a solar drying process

S. Timoumi*, D. Mihoubi, F. Zagrouba
Laboratoire des Procédés Chimiques, Institut National des Recherches Scientifiques et Techniques,
BP 95, 2050 Hammam-Lif, Tunisie
Tel. +216 (71) 430470; Fax. +216 (71) 430934; email: souad_tim@yahoo.fr

Received 17 February 2004; accepted 25 February 2004

Abstract
The aim of this paper is to study the thermal behaviour of a solar air heater as a source of energy for drying
agricultural products. The output temperature and velocity of the drying air were first evaluated, and a mathematical
formulation of the physical process of solar drying based on conventional heat and mass transfer equations is then
presented and simulated.

Keywords: Solar; Modelling; Drying kinetics

1. Introduction
time. Sun drying is one of the old preservation
The high energy consumption of the drying methods where solar energy can be used to heat
operation and the importance of environmental air. This fact, along with the recently underlined
protection have directed interest towards the environmental questions, also implies reconsider-
application of solar energy to agricultural and ing the application of solar energy in drying. This
industrial processes. In addition, the quality of the application is particularly well suited to all kinds
dried end-products has also recently become of drying processes using relatively low temp-
more and more important for the processing of eratures, such as the drying of agricultural and
agricultural products. These are the motivations other products or grain. The purpose is either to
for a multi-objective optimization problem of the preserve them for later use, as is the case with
drying along with the constraint of processing food, or as an integral part of the production
process, as with timber. Solar collectors have the
*Corresponding author. advantage that they are more effective than sun
Presented at the EuroMed 2004 conference on Desalination Strategies in South Mediterranean Countries: Cooperation
between Mediterranean Countries of Europe and the Southern Rim of the Mediterranean. Sponsored by the European
Desalination Society and Office National de l’Eau Potable, Marrakech, Morocco, 30 May–2 June, 2004.
0011-9164/04/$– See front matter © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
112 S. Timoumi et al. / Desalination 168 (2004) 111–115

drying. The efficiency of a solar collector

depends on its type and model as well as on the (2)
rate of heat loss during operation.

The radiation heat transfer coefficient from cover

2. Climate of Tunisia to air is:
The Arab world is an important geographical
zone, with long sunny days during the year. (3)
Therefore, using solar energy can considerably
reduce energy costs. Tunisia has about 2860 to
Swinbank [2] relates sky temperature to local air
3200 h of sunshine per year and receives average
temperature by
solar energy of 4.8 kWh.m!2.d!1. This solar
energy is sufficient, especially in summer, to
meet all the energy demands for the drying of (4)
agricultural products.
Hence, the top loss coefficient from cover to
ambient is:
3. Solar air heater model (Fig. 1)
The convection heat transfer between air and (5)
duct walls (fluid-plate and fluid-cover) is:
The radiation heat transfer coefficient between
plate and cover is:
(1)

The convection heat transfer coefficient due to

(6)
the wind from cover to ambient air is given by
Watmuff et al. [1]:

Energy balances on the cover, plate, and fluid

yield the following equations:

(7)

(8)

(9)

Solving we obtain:

(10)

Fig. 1. Solar air flat-plate collector.

 S. Timoumi et al. / Desalination 168 (2004) 111–115 113

The collector efficiency can be found from:

(11)

(19)
Substituting in Eq. (9):

(12) 4. The drying model (Fig. 2)

As apples are usually dried in slices, the mass
where
and heat transfer were supposed unidirectional.
During the drying process, apple slices undergo
a simultaneous mass and heat transfer. Heat
(13)
transferred from air to the product causes the
vapourisation of water, resulting in an increase of
the relative humidity in the air. All of the heat
lost by the air is assumed to be utilized for mois-
(14) ture vapourisation as latent heat of water vapour.

4.1. Mass balance

The collector heat removal factor is defined as:
The continuity equation applied to the two
phases gives:
C Solid: (20)
(15)

where G is the flow rate per unit of collector area,
and G = m 0 /Acoll. Then, qu is calculated as a func-
tion of the inlet fluid temperature:
(16)
C Liquid: (21)
After the combination of these two equations, and
introducing the water content dry basis, noted w,
one obtains the following central expression:

The mean fluid temperature was shown by Klein

et al. [3] to be:
(22)

(17)

The outlet fluid temperature is:

(18)
Fig. 2. Schematic problem of sample dehydration.
114 S. Timoumi et al. / Desalination 168 (2004) 111–115

4.2. Energy balance were solved numerically by a finite difference

Following the hypothesis that evaporation
occurs only at the surface level, the internal heat
transfer obeys Fourier’s law with a variable con-
ductivity apparent coefficient function of the
water content.
(23)
4.3. Initial and limit conditions
C For time zero, both temperature and water
content are uniform:
method. The temperature, velocity and humidity
of air outlet of solar collector were used in
simulating the drying process.
6. Simulation of the solar drying process
The hot air flow caused evaporation of water,
leading to a decrease in the product moisture
content, till it reached equilibrium. The effect of
the air temperature on the drying process of apple
slices is shown in Fig. 3. The effect of air velocity
on the drying process of apple slices is shown in
Fig. 4. The effect of air humidity on the drying
process of apple slices is shown in Fig. 5.

6.1. Effect of air temperature

C (x=e): on its surface, the product exchanges
As noted in other studies [4–6], the main
heat by both convection and radiation. The
factor influencing drying kinetics is temperature.
energy flux continuity therefore can be
Thus, the drying kinetics and, therefore the water
written:
loss, depend directly on air temperature. The total
drying time was reduced substantially with an
(24) increase of air temperature from 30°C to 50°C,
and the drying rate was proportional to the air
temperature (Fig. 3).
where hc (Ta!Tsurf) is the flux density ex-
changed by convection; Qwall the radiative flux
density exchanged with the surrounding walls;
m0 Lv the flux density of heat corresponding to
the vapourisation heat and 8h@(MT)/(Mx) is
the flux density transmitted by conduction
towards the heart of the sample.
C The sample (x=0) bottom surface is supposed
to be symmetric:

(25)

5. Numerical resolution
The partial differential equations are much too
complicated to find an analytical solution, so they Fig. 3. Effect of inlet air temperature on drying kinetics.
 S. Timoumi et al. / Desalination 168 (2004) 111–115
6.2. Effect of air velocity
As expected, there is an acceleration of the
drying process due to the increase of air velocity.
This effect is considered, in general, lower than
the effect of temperature (Fig. 4).
6.3. Effect of air humidity
The effect of air humidity on the acceleration
of the drying progress is considered, in general,
as lower than that of air temperature (Fig. 5). As
expected, there is an acceleration of the drying
Fig. 4. Effect of inlet air velocity on the drying kinetics.
Fig. 5. Effect of inlet air humidity on drying kinetics.
115
process due to the decrease of the air humidity of
the drying air from 20% to 40%. Similar results
for similar products have been reported in the
literature [7,8].
7. Conclusions
The drying simulation model provides infor-
mation about the influence of various important
parameters on the drying phenomenon. However,
the accuracy of the proposed procedure must be
verified by comparing theoretical to experimental
results. As we know, drying systems do not have
an efficiency of 100%. There are heat losses
through the walls.
Temperature was found to be the most impor-
tant factor of the drying rate for apple slices while
the effect of air velocity and air humidity is
considered lower than that of air temperature.
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