PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF FORCED CONVECTION EVACUATED TUBE SOLAR COLLECTOR USED FOR GRAPE DRYER

In the present experimental study an evacuated tube solar collector is designed, fabricated and its performance is tested in the force convection mode of heat transfer. The solar collector is designed for the grape dryer of capacity 10kg per batch. Experiments are carried out in the month of April to produce raisins for Thomson Seedless grapes, with initial moisture content of 77 (kg per kg on wet basis)% to final moisture content of 19 (kg per kg on wet basis)% in 36 hours. Raisins produced from this system are tested for varies parameters to check its quality and found satisfactory results. The average collector efficiency is found to be 23.4%.