Abstract

This paper presents the design, construction and performance evaluation of solar drying for maize, the solar drying system consists of V-groove collector of 2.04 m² area, drying chamber and blower. It was designed in such a way that solar radiation is not incident directly on the maize. K-type thermocouples were used for temperature measurement, while solar radiation was measured by solar meter m od.776. The thermal energy and heat losses from solar collector were calculated for each three tilt angles (30º, 45º and 60º). The results obtained during the test period denoted that the maximum gained energy occurred at 11 o'clock hour and then gradually declined since the maximum solar radiation occurred at this time. The performance of the solar drying system was highly dependent on the solar radiation, tilt angle and ambient temperature. The total loss factor of the collector increases with the increase in the intensity of solar radiation intensity. The theoretical thermal energy, the experimental actual heats gain increase by increasing radiation intensity.

Key words: Solar energy, solar air collector, v-corrugated collector, solar drying system performance study.