Abstract:Aiming to address the issues of poor temperature uniformity and high energy consumption during agricultural product drying, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was employed to optimize both the structure and operational parameters of the air supply system in a drying chamber. A threedimensional model of the drying chamber was established, and comparative analysis of different air supply schemes revealed that the side supply and side return method generated a “C” shaped temperature distribution, reducing the velocity non-uniformity coefficient by 21.0% and the temperature nonuniformity coefficient by 38.3%. Orthogonal experiments demonstrated that the air supply temperature predominantly governed temperature uniformity, with the temperature non-uniformity coefficient decreased by 26.6% under the 260°C condition compared with that under the 60°C condition. The air supply velocity regulated energy efficiency, with the 10m/s medium-speed condition achieving the highest energy utilization coefficient. The parameter combination of 260°C and 10m/s achieved an optimal balance between energy efficiency and temperature uniformity. Experimental validation showed an average relative deviation of 4.57% between simulated and measured temperatures. Further investigation of flow field characteristics under actual load conditions indicated that although the tray rack increased flow resistance, intense turbulence effectively disrupted temperature stratification and improved uniformity. The research proposed an optimized solution centered on the side supply and side return method combined with 260°C and 10m/s parameters, providing important theoretical basis and data support for the design of high-performance, low-energy consumption drying equipment for agricultural products.
