Numerical Simulation of a New Optimized Cabinet Dryer for Apple Drying

Drying cabinets are the most common fruit drying equipment. Experimental assessment of the heat and the mass transfer phenomenon during the drying process is a complex task, which also involves more operating costs and time. This drawback is neutralized by the use of computational software. A new dryer was designed to analyze its performance using ANSYS FLUENT. Four dissimilar geometries of cabinet dryers were designed to execute heat transfer analysis. From the heat transfer analysis for a given boundary conditions, the optimized design based on temperature and velocity behaviors within the dryer was selected. Design 4 displays the maximum temperature and better turbulence at the trays among all other designs. It is therefore chosen as the optimum design for mass transfer analysis. The multiphase model was selected in the ANSYS software. Rectangular apple slices are used as a drying product. The results of the mass transfer analysis show that the vapor content decreased from 100 to 11 percent in 500 sec using the optimized heat transfer analysis design.