Simulation of a passive solar dryer to charqui production using temperature and pressure networks

This paper presents a passive solar dryer that includes a chimney and a wind turbine to improve the airflow rate. The prototype of 2 m2 of drying chamber area was tested to obtain charqui (dried beef). In relation to the traditional charqui, the final quality was greatly improved and drying time was reduced to less than two sunny days. A simulation method of the passive solar dryer is also presented. In this, pressure and thermal coupled network are used to represent the dryer, and they are solved by electrical analogy. Simulation and experimental results were analyzed, showing a good fit to the measured data, especially with trends. In all cases, the fits between measured and simulated data have coefficients of determination r2 higher than 0.93. The simulation method is suitable to be used in the design of passive solar dryers to find the optimum mass air flow.