Solar heat collection characteristics of a fiber reinforced plastic drying house

This article describes a study of the application of solar energy in a Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) house designed for a brown rice drying system. The theoretical heat collection characteristics of an FRP solar drying house when empty are presented and compared to experimental results. The purpose of the study was to evaluate: (I) the temperature variation inside the house; (2) the effect of solar radiation and airflow rate on the temperature difference between the air inside and outside the FRP house (temperature rise); and (3) the heat collection efficiency of an FRP house when using and not using a solar collector It was observed both theoretically and experimentally that the temperature of the air inside the house is higher than that of the outside ail; and in the mathematical model, the so far collector shows a higher temperature than the roof cover As the airflow rate from the dryer fan inside the house increases, temperature rise decreases. For global solar radiation in the range of 100 to 800W/m(2), the temperature rise shows an exponential relationship with global solar radiation, and the values of temperature rise are higher when using a collector (5-16 degrees C) than when not using one (4-11 degrees C). Thus, collector installation inside an FRP solar house has a clear effect on increasing the air temperature inside the house, which leads to an increase in the heat collection efficiency of the house of around 27.23%. In this work, some relationships predicting the optimal house floor size required, the airflow rate per unit mass of product to be dried, and the energy collection are discussed. Then, from the house floor size, airflow rate and collected energy requirements to dry a given amount of product optimally could be calculated.