CFD ANALYSIS EFFECT OF VARIATION OF VALVE OPENINGS IN MOBILE CORN DRYER COOLING SYSTEM

• Main Author: Indra Sulistyo Budi, Donny
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/77625
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The availability of corn throughout the year and its good quality for the industry require the right postharvest technology. Mobile Corn Dryer (MCD) is made to reduce the moisture content of corn so that it lasts a long time and does not spoil easily. The MCD process involves heating to reduce the moisture content in the corn, then cooling to lower the temperature after heating. The advantage of the MCD is that it is on a four-wheeled vehicle so it can move around and carry out the drying process in various corn farming areas. This study focuses on the analysis of the cooling characteristics of corn using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method. In this study, an analysis was carried out by adding valves to the air ducts with the two-pass configuration MCD model. The simulation was carried out at a mass flow rate of 1.5 tons/hour of corn with variations in the thickness of the corn piles of 2, 4, and 6 cm. There are five valve opening configurations: flat 0°, flat 60°, descending, ascending, and combination. The results showed that the lower final temperature of corn was achieved faster at large valve openings, sequentially, namely flat 0° configuration (300,89 K), combination (301,46 K), ascending (305,44 K), descending (306,6 K), and finally flat 60° (323,92 K). The combination configuration is the most optimal with a difference in temperature values of 0.5% and 28% lower power compared to the flat 0° configuration. The temperature gradient on the top pass conveyor is higher with a range of -17 K/m to -1 K/m, while on the bottom pass conveyor it is only -7 K/m to -0.2 K/m. This shows that the heat transfer in the upper pass conveyor is greater.