Thermal performance evaluation of a greenhouse solar dryer equipped with photovoltaic cells and phase change material

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran

2 Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory of Renewable Energies and Electromagnetic Fluids, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran

3 University of Birjand

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the performance evaluation of a greenhouse solar dryer equipped with photovoltaic cells and phase change material. The governing equations of problem are obtained by writing the energy balance for the various components of the system including photovoltaic module, greenhouse chamber air, crop, absorber plate and phase change material. In order to calculate the thermal and electrical parameters of the system including photovoltaic cell’s temperature, the temperature of greenhouse chamber air, crop temperature, phase change material temperature, absorber plate temperature and electrical power, the governing equations on the system performance are solved by numerical methods. Also, a relation for the overall energy efficiency of the system is introduced. The modeling results of the present study are in good agreement with the experimental data of the previous literature. The results obtained for the typical day of Zahedan show that the phase change material by storing the system loss heat during the day and releasing it at night enables the crop drying process to continue well into the night so that the overall evaporation rate increases by about 38.76%. The maximum energy efficiency of the system is about 15%.

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References

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Amirkabir Journal of Mechanical Engineering
Volume 53, Issue 5 (Special Issue)
August 2021
Pages 3367-3384

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