Food losses and hunger around the world are majorly attributed to the lack of diverse food processing technologies and standardized methods. Solar energy is a potential solution for drying agricultural products, but traditional solar drying methods are not yet widely used. This study developed a finite element model using COMSOL Multiphysics to assess the performance of a passive greenhouse dryer for drying food products. The proposed model was used to simulate the drying of potato slices, and the results showed that the dryer was able to reduce the moisture content of the potato slices from 1 to 0.005 in 3 h. The drying efficiency was 20.52%, the relative humidity inside the drying chamber was 25.2%, and the energy and exergy efficiencies were 63.46% and 94.01%, respectively. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the passive greenhouse dryer is a suitable drying method for potato chips. The model developed in this study can be used to further optimize the design of the dryer and to evaluate its performance for other food products.

中文翻译：

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用于薯片干燥的被动式温室太阳能干燥机的性能评估和有限元模型开发

世界各地的粮食损失和饥饿主要归因于缺乏多样化的食品加工技术和标准化方法。太阳能是农产品干燥的潜在解决方案，但传统的太阳能干燥方法尚未广泛应用。本研究使用 COMSOL Multiphysics 开发了一个有限元模型，以评估用于干燥食品的被动式温室干燥机的性能。利用所提出的模型对马铃薯片的干燥进行模拟，结果表明，干燥机能够在3 h内将马铃薯片的水分含量从1降低到0.005。干燥效率为20.52%，干燥室内相对湿度为25.2%，能量效率和火用效率分别为63.46%和94.01%。总体而言，本研究结果表明被动式温室干燥机是一种适合薯片的干燥方法。本研究中开发的模型可用于进一步优化干燥机的设计并评估其对其他食品的性能。