THERMAL PERFORMANCE INVESTIGATION OF A HYBRID SOLAR AIR HEATER APPLIED IN A SOLAR DRYER USING THERMODYNAMIC MODELING

Abstract

Hybrid air heater is a device taking advantage of two or more energy sources directly or indirectly for heating air. This study aims to analyze energy and exergy for a hybrid air heater. It is assumed that no thermal gradient exists along glass thickness and one-directional variation of temperature is in flow direction and thermal capacity of glass, absorber plate, and thermal insulations are negligible. To avoid food oxidation in dryers, effects of heating fluid such as air, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen on temperature, heat transfer, and thermodynamic first and second law efficiencies are also investigated along with the effects of hybrid heating on the aforementioned parameters. The problem is solved using MATLAB software and invoking iterative method with convergence criterion of 0.0001 for temperature. Results indicate the positive effects of using carbon dioxide. Applying hybrid system is also shown to increase the efficiency of air heater.