NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON STRUCTURE OPTIMIZATION FOR COMPARTMENT DRYERS

Compartment dryers for fruits and vegetables involve problems including dead zones and nonuniform drying. To address these problems, experimental and numerical analyses are carried out in this study using an airflow control equation and the k-omega SST model to optimize the structural parameters of the drying section in the compartment dryer. The dryer was numerically simulated using Fluent software, and the dryer structural parameters (i.e., numbers of hot-air inlets and outlets, aperture size, and tilt angle) were optimized using response surface analysis. Subsequently, the airflow distribution within the dryer was determined by using Fluent software; the temperature nonuniformity coefficient (Mt), the velocity nonuniformity coefficient (Mv), the temperature deviation ratio (Et), and the velocity deviation ratio (Ev) served as evaluation metrics for airflow uniformity in the dryer. The results revealed that Mt, Mv, Et, and Ev decreased by 25.47%, 30.49%, 28.41%, and 14.74%, respectively, enhancing the airflow uniformity in the dryer.