A computational approach to analyze apple dehydration using hybrid active solar dryer

In the present research, the control parameters that is, bed area, water flow rate, and No. of air exchanges of Hybrid Active Solar Dryer integrated with Evacuated Tube Collector located at the solar energy laboratory of Madhav Institute of Technology and Science (MITS) Gwalior (M.P.) India, have been optimized. Moisture removal (m_ev), convective heat transfer coefficient (h_c), evaporative heat transfer coefficient (h_e) and drying rate (R_d) have been taken as response parameters. Experiments have been conducted in different seasons according to Taguchi's L₉ orthogonal array (OA). Response data has been analyzed independently and simultaneously. With the help of signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, optimal parameter setting has been determined for good performance in different seasons. Entropy measuring techniques are used to determine the entropy weightage of each response. Gray relational analysis integrates several responses into a single one, that is, gray relational grade (GRG). The value of predicted S/N ratio for GRG as per optimal parameter setting is −0.04706 which is higher than the experimental S/N ratio which is −0.48614, indicating the successful implementation of this approach.