Design and Fabrication of Cabin Drying Technique

IJIRST –International Journal for Innovative Research in Science & Technology| Volume 3 | Issue 11 | April 2017 ISSN (online): 2349-6010

Design and Fabrication of Cabin Drying Technique Vyshak Padmakumar UG Student Department of Mechanical Engineering Saintgits College of Engineering

Nithin Mathew Kurian UG Student Department of Mechanical Engineering Saintgits College of Engineering

Sentison Mathew UG Student Department of Mechanical Engineering Saintgits College of Engineering

Wesly Varghese Mathew UG Student Department of Mechanical Engineering Saintgits College of Engineering

Arun K Varghese Assistant Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering Saintgits College of Engineering

Abstract Coconut cultivators and oil mill owners expressed a need for commercial and small equipment which can dry kernels irrespective of the weather conditions within the shortest time. Since, the conventional methods use natural convection and conduction to transfer heat with the help of burners or furnace setups, they devour a lot of time. Here, an infrared lamp is made use of as the primary heat source to heat the organic contents placed in a closed chamber so as to obtain the ambient conditions necessary to provide uniform and expedite desiccation. The model was designed using Solidworks 2016 and the structural and thermal analysis was done using the in built solver.

Keywords: Conduction, Controlled Environment, Desiccator, Forced Convection, Infrared filament _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ I.

INTRODUCTION

Drying is a very common form of preserving the edible items especially those that belong to the category of nuts, dry fruits and vegetables. In addition to preservation, extraction of certain products requires complete dehumidification. Therefore the commonly used technique for drying them is by placing them in the sunlight. However the varying amount of sunlight, rains, mist, dust etc. affect the quality of final product obtained. It also prolongs the time taken for their production.

The alternative to this method is kiln drying. But there are many problems associated with kiln drying such as uneven drying, dried items getting smoked up, fire accidents, etc. Accurate control of water content and temperatures are however not possible.

Drying in electric furnaces help to obtain a much cleaner dried product. However the energy consumption associated with electric furnaces is very high. India being a country having acute energy shortage this system cannot be used. Hence we developed a desiccator unit which uses electricity to drive infrared filaments for producing heat. The system is developed to reduce energy consumption at the same time produce high quality dried product.

II. DESIGN Our interaction with farmers and those who dealt with drying coconut kernels, made us to understand that they were in need of a compact drying equipment which could efficiently desiccate the coconut kernels at low cost and within a short span of time.

With that in mind a process was developed to create a controlled environment to remove the moisture content from the material to be dried by using infrared rays which creates a similar atmosphere as solar drying.

The temperature and humidity is controlled with the help of an ECU-(Electronic Control Unit).The machine pumps the air from the atmosphere and passes it through a dehydrating unit where the moisture from the atmosphere is absorbed by the silica gel crystals.The dehydrating unit absorbs maximum moisture content and is attached to a blower unit. Later, this dried air is fed into the cabin uniformly by the forced convection unit with the help of a blower. This process continues throughout the period of operation of the machine.

As the machine uses an Infra-red filament heater, the product gets heated up by radiation. In the cabin, thermocouples and humidity sensors are placed so that a control over the temperature can be achieved with the aid of ECU. Air flow can be controlled by controlling forced convection unit according to signals from ECU. Also heating sequences can be pre-set into the ECU so as to dry different food products. Customized way of drying and heating can also be done.

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Design and Fabrication of Cabin Drying Technique (IJIRST/ Volume 3 / Issue 11/ 028)

The most optimum temperature for cabin drying coconut kernels was obtained from research papers and was found to be around 90OC.

Fig. 1:

III. ANALYSIS The desiccator was designed using Solidworks 2016 and structural and CFD analysis was conducted on it. The initial design was made to bear a loading capacity of 30kgs and the material chosen for fabrication was stainless steel due to its easy availability and inherent properties.

Structural Analysis

Fig. 2: Structural Analysis

Temperature Distribution

Fig. 3: Temperature Distribution

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Design and Fabrication of Cabin Drying Technique (IJIRST/ Volume 3 / Issue 11/ 028)

Flow Velocity Distribution

Fig. 4: Flow Velocity Distribution

IV. CONCLUSION The fabricated product would ensure efficient production of dry coconut kernels or any other edible item using the above mentioned method. The drying time was found to be reduced greatly. Unfavorable weather conditions cannot deter the purpose from being met as this closed chamber ensures complete isolation from external weather conditions and thereby helps reduce or even nullify the problems that rise due to fungus or bacterial attack. Most importantly this product would give optimum output at a reduced consumption of electricity thereby making it energy efficient. We were thus able to address the problem encountered by those dealing with drying coconut kernels to a large extent.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT We would like to thank all who helped and guided us for the study and development of the proposed design.

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J Deepa, P Rajkumar & T Arumuganathan, Quality analysis of copra dried at different drying air temperatures ,International Journal of Agricultural Science and Research (IJASR)ISSN(P): 2250-0057; ISSN(E): 2321-0087,Vol. 5, Issue 4, Aug 2015 Kaul, S., H.B.Goyal, A.K.Bhatnagar, A.K. Gupta. 2009. Industrial Crops and Products. 29: 102-107.

Shanmugam, V. and E. Natarajan. 2006. Experimental investigation of forced convection and desiccant integrated solar dryer, Renewable Energy. 31:12391251.

Thiruchelvam, T., D.A.D. Nimal and S.Upali.2007. Comparison of quality and yield of copra produced processed in CRI improved kiln drying and sun drying. Journal of Food Engineering. 78: 1446-1457.

Ivanova,D. and K. Andonov. 2001. Analytical and experimental study of combined fruit and vegetable dryer. Energy Conversion and Management. 42:

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