Abstract
Devising technologies to make use of renewable energy such as solar energy is very innovative and progressive sincetapping energy from a free source is cost effective in the long-term and totally ecologically friendly. The main aim ofsolar drying of crops is to preserve them by removing the excess moisture that will cause their deterioration in orderto improve their shelf life. Solar drying though found to be a mature, cost-effective and an efficient method ofdrying especially crops, it has not been widely deployed for crop drying both at the commercial and industrial levelin Ghana. The purpose of this research is to produce a solar heat collector for space heating using cheap andavailable materials and also to demonstrate the importance of incorporating obstacle/fins on plates to improve theefficiency of solar collectors. This study investigates the effect of increased air contact area of various configurationon the efficiency of solar air heaters. Nine different absorber plates (with and without fins) were considered by thisresearch in an experimental study to select the best design that will be suitable for absorbing or providing a highfraction of heat for conditioning humid atmospheric air (lowest relative humidity of the collector air). The bestdesigns of this study had an efficiency between 58% to 72% and maximum absorber temperatures above 80oC,collector air temperature above 70oC and collector air relative humidity below 20% while the worst design had anefficiency between 35% and 50%, collector air temperature bellow 45oC and the lowest collector air relativehumidity of 26%. The findings of this research have revealed that increasing the contact area of the air current orcirculation and the shapes of the fins attached to flat absorber plates increase their air contact areas and affect thethermal efficiency of the solar collectors. Also, it has revealed that the arrangement of fins contributes positively tothe efficiency of solar collectors.
 Citation: Felix Uba, Eric Osei Essandoh, Gilbert Ayine Okolo, Charles Nunya Dzikunu. Thermal Performance of Flat PlateSolar Collectors for Humid and Unpredicted Weather using Air Properties and Energy Method, 2020; 5(4): 30-49.
 Received: September 17, 2020Accepted: December 31, 2020
Highlights
1.1 Background Though the deterioration of agricultural produce starts with the presence of unacceptable levels of its own moisture, external conditions such as damp environment and pest attack contribute enormously to the deterioration or spoilage of agricultural produce (Adom, Dzogbefia, & Ellis, 1997; Fudholi A. , et al, 2015; Schiavone, 2011)
The temperature values do not show explicitly the effectiveness of the plates as their heat transfer coefficients are different due to the shape factor of the various fins, so a better case is to use the air inside the collector as a heat sink
The fin designs incorporated into the solar air heaters designed and fabricated by this study were of the following four geometrical shapes: square, rectangular, kite and triangular. Each of these four fin designs was arranged on two different flat absorber plates in two different orientations giving eight different configurations of solar air heaters
Summary
1.1 Background Though the deterioration of agricultural produce starts with the presence of unacceptable levels of its own moisture, external conditions such as damp environment and pest attack contribute enormously to the deterioration or spoilage of agricultural produce (Adom, Dzogbefia, & Ellis, 1997; Fudholi A. , et al, 2015; Schiavone, 2011). The other method of crop drying (artificial drying) which happens to be more efficient requires devices and standard technologies. This method allows the conditioning of air for product drying controlling the drying mechanism in order to produce a good quality product at the end of the drying time. The mechanical type of artificial method of drying which is found to be more efficient than natural or open air drying and much cheaper than electric drying has not been deployed widely in Ghana for socio-economic gains and for this reason, it is imperative for local researchers to pursue this objective in future research
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
