Studies on the Practical Applications of Solar Energy to Rice Drying (Part I)

A Simplified Type of Air Collector

Abstract

For the practical applications of the solar energy to rice grain drying, the field experiment should be done so often to solve the undecided problems. But it looks difficult to expect whether the field experiment is conducted under completely desired conditions, because experimental conditions are dependent mainly on the climates.
The rice grain drying using the solar energy was therefore numerically computed by use of the mathematical model proposed to investigate the properties and economical merits and demerits of the system.
In this paper, with respect to the simple air collector of a suspended plate type which has a high efficiency, the followings were derived: the adaptability of a mathematical model to an actual system, the influence of the solar radiation and others on the collector properties such as a quantity of solar energy collected, the economiically considered limit of the cost per unit area of collector.