It is experienced that drying in the developed air solar collector
with swirl flow uniform, and products dried under swirl flow
conditions reach requested moisture conditions more rapidly. Experiments
performed under 3 different air velocities it is examined that
drying period is getting shorter with the increase of drying air's velocity. Also drying experiments are made with air directing
elements installed inside the dryer and a swirl element to the
entrance of drying chamber was then compared with drying in open
air under natural conditions in terms of drying period. Accordingly
200 h of drying period under natural conditions decrease to 80 h with
the developed dryer having swirl element with an air velocity of
1.5 m/s. With the increase in the difference of dryer's entrance and exit
temperatures drying period gets shorter. In the drying period air
velocity has more influence than air temperature and in all
experiments drying took place during decaying drying period.
To remove wax layer on the grapes so as to increase the drying
speed seeded grapes have been dipped inside a commercial solution
what is called “potasa” in which potassium carbonate is used before
drying. It is possible to add different materials thought to be alternative inside this dipping solution and their effect on drying can
be examined.
At the same time the air solar collector with swirl flow dryer
manufactured for drying seeded grapes can also be used for drying
other fruits and vegetables. Also by increasing the capacity of the
dryer more products can be dried. In the manufactured swirl flow
dryer number of flaps and diameter in the used swirl element, and the
number of air directing elements can be increased or concluded with
an optimization.
Drying seeded grape, which is an important nutritional element,
with advanced drying techniques will improve its quality and provide
conformance with the standards. Considering the profits of dried
seeded grape and its contribution on economy the studies should be
concentrated on dried seeded grape.