J. Environ. Res. Develop.

Journal of Environmental Research And Development Vol. 7 No. 4, April-June 2013

EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF GREENHOUSE DRYER

IN NO-LOAD CONDITIONS
Kumar Anil, Prakash Om*1, Kaviti Ajay and Tomar Abhishek2
1. Department of Energy, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal (INDIA)
2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sagar Institute of Science and Technology,
Bhopal (INDIA)

Received December 08, 2012 Accepted March 10, 2013

ABSTRACT
The use of solar energy in recent years had reached a remarkable edge. The continuous research
for an alternative power source due to the perceived scarcity of fuel fossils is its driving force. It
had become even more popular as the cost of fossil fuel continues to rise. Among all the
renewable sources of energy available, solar energy is the most abundant one and is available in
both direct as well as indirect forms. In this paper, the performance of active and passive
greenhouse dryer is evaluated under no-load in monsoon season. The hourly data for the ambient
temperature, relative humidity, wind velocity, radiation intensity were taken inside and outside
the greenhouse dryers. These data are used for the determination of the performance of both
type of greenhouse dryer. From the experimental results, it can be concluded that drying
conditions in passive mode of greenhouse drying are not favorable as relative humidity inside
the dyer is high. However, drying in active mode is more encouraging as relative humidity can
be maintained through exhaust fan. Monsoon seasons were more unpredictable and resulted in
poorer drying conditions.
Key Words : Solar energy, Solar dryer, Efficiency, Seasonal performance, Monsoon

INTRODUCTION toxin development. This process has several

disadvantages like spoilage of product due to
According to investigations around 15% of the
adverse climatic condition like rain, wind,
world population today is undernourished. The
moist and dust, loss of material due to birds
increase in world population will strengthen
and animals, deterioration of the material by
the yet existing population–food imbalance.
decomposition, insect infestation and fungal
Besides increasing food supply and limiting
growth. Also the process is highly labor
population growth, drastically reducing the
intensive, time consuming and requires large
food losses which occur throughout food
area. With cultural and industrial development,
production, harvest, post-harvest and
artificial mechanical drying came into practice.
marketing seems to be a viable option. The
This process is highly energy intensive and
reduction of food losses is particularly a
expensive, which ultimately increases product
problem for small farmers in developing
cost. Thus solar drying is the best alternative as
countries who produce more than 80% of the
a solution of all the drawbacks of natural
food. Solar drying is in practice since time
drying and artificial mechanical drying.
immemorial for preservation of food and
Greenhouse solar dryers use regular
agriculture crops. This was done particularly
greenhouse structure where the product is
by open sun drying under the open sky. Since
placed in the trays receiving the solar radiation
traditional sun drying is a relatively slow
through the plastic cover while the moisture is
process, considerable losses can occur. In
removed by natural convection or forced air
addition, a reduction in the product quality
flow. Placing a plastic covering over the crop
takes place due to insect infestation, enzymatic
produces a greenhouse effect to trap the solar
reactions, microorganism growth and myco-
energy in the form of thermal heat radiation
*Author for correspondence and prevents conduction heat loss. The rate of
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Journal of Environmental Research And Development
drying (moisture evaporation) depends on a
number of external parameters (solar radiation,
ambient temperature, wind velocity and
relative humidity) and internal parameters
(initial moisture contents, type of crops, crop
absorptivity, mass of product per unit exposed
area etc.). Recently many researchers have
performed both experimental and modeling on
the performance of solar dryer under open sun
conditions. It has been reported 1 during their
studies that the energy efficiency and energy
utilization have considerable dependence on
drying conditions especially time and
temperature. An extensive review has been
done on solar dryers.2,3 It was reported from
their review that it could be highly cost-
effective approach to apply solar drying for
drying agricultural and marine products. In the
review done4,5, they have presented that the
selection of solar dryers depends upon the
particular application and agricultural needs.
Based on these there are basically two types of
dryers, active and passive. A study of review
has been by6 to improve the cost effectiveness
in order to qualitatively dry the products by
using solar assistance. In the recent past, an
experimental analysis and modeling on green
house solar dryer has been carried out.7 The
researchers used polycarbonate cover to
minimize the UV radiations and it has been
reported that it is an effective means to get
good quality dried products. It was reported
that both the mathematical modeling is in good
agreement with their experimental results. A
detailed review on especially experimental
techniques on solar dryer was been presented.8
(a)
Fig. 1 : (a) Natural convection mode (b) Forced convection mode
Instrumentation
The instruments used were solar power meter
used to measure solar insolation with range of
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Vol. 7 No. 4, April-June 2013
The experimental analysis on indirect solar
dryer under unloading conditions during non-
summer months has been carried out.9 An
Auto-CAD analysis used for writing energy
balance equations on green house dryer was
implemented.10-12
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
From the above literature, it was noted that
there was dearth in the research done under
unloading conditions. The present study
discusses in detail the effect of various
operating parameters on the performance of
green house dryer under unloading conditions
by considering the variations of ambient
conditions (temperature and solar radiation),
velocity of air and relative humidity both in
natural and forced modes of drying.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Experimental Setup
A roof type even span greenhouse with 1.50×
1.01 m2 effective floor covering area was made
of PVC pipe and covered with polycarbonate
sheet of thickness 3 mm. The central height of
this single chamber dryer was 0.73 m. Two
vents of 0.01m diameter were drilled in the
bottom of the dryer for inlet air which is being
heated and sent out. An air vent was provided
for the purpose of moisture removal at the roof
for natural convection. Experimental setup for
greenhouse drying in the natural mode is
shown in Fig. 1(a). For forced convection a
fan was provided on the sidewall of the
greenhouse during the experiments Fig. 1(b).
(b)
2000 W/m2, 634BTU / (ft2xh). Anemometer
cum thermometer used to measure wind
velocity and temperature having range of

Journal of Environmental Research And Development
temperature from -120 to 1370 oC and wind
speed of 0.2 to 60 m/s. Infrared thermometer
used to measure ground temperature inside and
ground greenhouse having range -18 to 275oC
was used. Relative humidity meter with a
range of 10 to 95% was used.
Experimentation
Experimental tests were undertaken at MANIT
Bhopal in India situated on latitude 23026' N,
longitude 770 40' E and at an altitude of 498 m
above standard sea level. The experiment is
performed on green house dryer under no load
condition during the monsoon season between
May and August. The effects of ambient
radiation and temperature conditions with
relative humidity on the dryer performance are
studied in both active and passive conditions.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
After construction of the solar drier, it was
tested empty or at the unload condition. The
analysis was carried out such as solar radiation
intensity, relative humidity, wind velocity,
ground temperature at ambient as well as
inside green house dryer. The diurnal
variations in weather conditions and the
performance of the dryer for two tests typical
of the wet season’s results are shown in Fig. 2
to Fig. 13 for illustration and are reasonably
representative of the general trend during
season. These results have been presented for
the relevant practical duration of the tests. Fig.
2 to Fig. 7 below shows the variation of the
various parameter with respect to time for
day1.
Fig. 2 depicts the variation of solar radiation
(global, diffuse) with respect to time. It shows
that the maximum solar intensity was 999
w/m2 during which the time was 12:00 PM
whereas the maximum solar radiation in the
diffused form was 190w/m2 at 12:00 PM.
Fig. 3 shows the variation of solar radiation
inside the dryer for both natural as well forced
convection mode. It depicts that the maximum
solar radiation in global form was 830w/m2
whereas the minimum was 46w/m2 at 3:00
PM. Variation is as shown below.
Fig. 4 shows the variation of temperature
inside the forced as well as natural type solar
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Vol. 7 No. 4, April-June 2013
dryer with respect to the ambient temperature
and time. The results are depicted below in
graph which show that maximum inside
temperature for natural dryer was 38.7oC at
1:00PM respectively whereas for forced dryer
it was 41.3oC which shows that the at the same
time there is high temperature in forced dryer.
So more efficient drying can be done in forced
dryer.
Fig. 5 shows the variation of ground
temperature with the ambient temperature and
time. It shows that the maximum ground
temperature was found to be 49.8oC at 12:00
PM.
Fig. 6 shows the variation of the relative
humidity inside dryer with ambient condition
during the time of the day. It can be depicted
that the maximum relative humidity was found
to be 59.6 % for natural and forced convection
mode.
Fig. 7 shows the variation of the wind velocity
with duration of the day. The results are as
shown below. The maximum wind velocity for
the day was incurred at 2:00PM which was
0.18m/sec.
Fig. 8 to Fig.13 shows the variation of the
parameter with the time for day 2. Fig. 8
shows the variation of solar radiation with
time. It can be depicted that the maximum
radiation intensity is 985w/m2 at 12:00PM
whereas the maximum diffused radiation
intensity was 200w/m2. Fig. 9 shows the
variation of solar radiation inside the dryer
with time. It can be seen that the maximum
global radiation is 827w/m2 whereas the
minimum was 336w/m2.
Fig.10 depicts the variation of temperature
inside the dryers with ambient temperature and
time. The variation is as shown below.
Similarly Fig. 11 shows the variation of the
ground temperature inside the dryer with
ambient temperature and time. The results are
plotted below. Similarly Fig. 12 shows the
variation of the relative humidity inside the
dryer with ambient relative humidity and time.
The results are plotted below. Similarly Fig. 13
shows the variation of the air velocity inside
the dryer with time. The results are plotted
below.
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Journal of Environmental Research And Development Vol. 7 No. 4, April-June 2013

Global radiation
Radiation Diffuse radiation
1200

Radiation (W/m2) 1000

800
600
400
200
0
10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM
Time (hr)

Fig. 2 : Variation of solar radiation

Global
Globalradiation
Radiation(inside)
(inside) Diffuse radiation (inside)

900
800
Radiation (W/m2)

700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM
Time (hr)

Fig. 3 : Variation of inside solar radiation

Ambient temperature Temperature inside (natural) Temperature inside (forced)

45
40
Temperature (0C)

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM
Time (hr)

Fig. 4 : Variation of inside temperature

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Ground temperature (forced) Ground temperature (natural) Ambient temperature

60
Temperature (0C) 50
40
30
20
10
0
10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM
Time (hr)

Fig. 5 : Variation of ground temperature

Relative humidity ambient Relative humidity forced Relative humidity (natural)

70
Relative humidity (%)

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM
Time (hr)

Fig. 6 : Variation of relative humidity

windvelocity
Wind velocity
0.2
Wind velocity (m/sec)

0.16

0.12

0.08

0.04

0
10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM
Time (hr)

Fig. 7 : Variation of wind velocity

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Global radiation Diffuse radiation

1200
Solar radiation (w/m2)
1000
800
600
400
200
0
10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM
Time (hr)

Fig. 8 : Variation of solar radiation for day 2

Diffuse radiation inside Global radiation inside

900
Solar radiation (w/m2)

800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM
Time (hr)

Fig. 9 : Variation of inside solar radiation for day 2

Temperature ambient temperatureinside

Temperature insidenatural
natural Temperature inside forced

45
40
Temperature (0C)

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM
Time (hr)

Fig. 10 : Variation of temperature

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Ambient temperature Ground temperature natural Ground

Groundtemperature forced
Temperature forced

50
Temperature( 0C)
40

30

20

10

0
10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM

Time (hr)

Fig. 11 : Variation of ground temperature

Ambient relative humidity Relative humidity forced Relative humidity natural

Relative humidity (%)

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM
Time (hr)

Fig. 12 : Variation of relative humidity

wind
Wind velocity
Velocity

0.2
Wind velocity (m/sec)

0.16
0.12
0.08
0.04

0
10:00 AM 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM
Time (hr)

Fig. 13 : Variation of wind velocity

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CONCLUSION
The best alternative to overcome the
disadvantages of traditional open sun drying
and the use of fossil fuels, is the development
of solar crop dryers. A general and simple
model for the natural and forced solar green
house dryer was developed. It has been
observed that the maximum inside temperature
in natural convection was found to be 40.60C
and maximum inside temperature for forced
convection was found to be 41.40C. Thus it is
observed that by forced convection efficiency
increased by 2%. It has been also observed that
the maximum relative humidity in natural
convection was found to be 62.6% and
maximum relative humidity for forced
convection was found to be 42.8%.Thus we
can conclude that the since the relative
humidity for forced convection is less than that
of the natural convection hence the drying rate
of the forced convection is efficient than
natural convection by 31%. Variable cloud
overcast, frequent rain and high relative
humidity affected adversely the drying
conditions during the wet season.
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