A transient performance evaluation of a porous evaporative cooler for preservation of fruits and vegetables
Date
2023-11
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Federal University of Technology, Owerri
Abstract
Post harvest loss is a major factor affecting commercial farming. Efforts to reduce it using the conventional cooling systems have not been successful to cost and unavailability of grid connected electricity. Evaporative cooling is a promising alternative but this work is required to improve on its overall performance. To do this, the transient performance under different climatic conditions is required for better understanding and possible system components optimization. This work therefore presents the transient performance evaluation of a porous evaporative cooler carried out using a mathematical model developed from first principle. The model is based on an energy balance and mass transfer analysis on different parts of the evaporative cooler. The developed model was solved using FlexPDE computational fluid dynamics analyser based on the finite element numerical approach. The numerical solution was validated using experimental data. Results obtained showed that the model very closely predicted the actual system performance with a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 0.205. In general it was observed that the evaporative cooler maintained a significantly lower storage temperature (20.9 – 24 )OC compared to the ambient temperature (27 – 33)OC for all climatic seasons of the year with the best performance recorded during the late dry season (January). Temperature difference between ambient and storage space during the hot periods of the day was in the range of 3 – 9 OC. Thus, the evaporative cooler has good potentials for all year round reduction of post harvest losses and the developed model is a good tool for the evaporative
cooler performance optimization.
Description
This thesis is for the award of Master of Engineering (M.Eng) in Mechanical Engineering
Keywords
Temperature, evaporative cooling, model, preservation, Department of Mechanical Engineering, fruits and vegetables
Citation
Paul-Okore, R. O. (2023). A transient performance evaluation of a porous evaporative cooler for preservation of fruits and vegetables (Unpublished Master's Thesis). Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria