Experimental performance and artificial neural network modeling of solar drying of litchi in the parabolic greenhouse dryer

Authors

  • Serm Janjai Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Silpakorn University
  • K. Tohsing
  • N. Lamlert
  • T. Mundpookhier
  • W. Chanalert
  • B. K. Bala

Keywords:

Artificial neural network, parabolic greenhouse dryer, litchi, drying

Abstract

This paper presents experimental performance and artificial neural network modeling of drying of litchi flesh in a parabolic greenhouse solar dryer. The dryer consists of a parabolic roof structure covered with polycarbonate sheets on a concrete floor. This dryer has the base area of 5.5´8.2 m2 and the height of 3.25 m. To investigate the experimental performance of the dryer for the drying of litchi flesh, 10 experiments were conducted. One hundred kilograms of litchi flesh were used for each experiment. The drying time of litchi flesh in the dryer was 3 days, whereas 5-6 days were required for natural sun drying under similar weather conditions. An artificial neural network (ANN) approach was used to model the performance of the dryer for the drying of litchi flesh. Using solar drying data of litchi flesh, the ANN model has been trained using the back-propagation algorithm. Seven sets of data were used for training and three sets were used for testing the ANN model. The performance of the dryer predicted by model was found to be very good.

References

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Published

1 May 2018

How to Cite

Janjai, S., Tohsing, K., Lamlert, N., Mundpookhier, T., Chanalert, W., & Bala, B. K. (2018). Experimental performance and artificial neural network modeling of solar drying of litchi in the parabolic greenhouse dryer. Journal of Renewable Energy and Smart Grid Technology, 13(1). Retrieved from https://ph01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/RAST/article/view/56849