In this theoretical–experimental study is presented a hybridization strategy based on the application of an inverse artificial neural network model (ANNi) coupled with metaheuristic optimization algorithms to optimize the drying velocity (vd) of an active indirect solar dryer for plantain and taro (Colocasia antiquorum). In the experimental stage, both fruits were evaluated in periods from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. under a humid tropical climate region, varying the voltage of the air extractor fan (at 6 V, 9 V, and 12 V) to control the fan velocity. The experimental results showed that the maximum drying velocities were reached at 9 V, achieving a drying velocity of 1.5, 0.9, and 0.55 g/min, with a total drying time of 465 min for the taro, and 1.46, 1.46, and 0.36 g/min, with a total drying time of 495 min, for the plantain. As a result of the drying curves, it was observed that the drying velocity is higher in taro than in plantain. Subsequently, an artificial neural network (ANN) architecture was trained using the database generated from the solar dryer’s experimental stage. Six environmental variables and one operational variable were considered as the model’s inputs, feeding the ANN to estimate the drying velocity (vd), obtaining a linear regression coefficient R = 0.9822 between the experimental and simulated data. A sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the impact of all the input variables. A hybrid strategy based on ANNi was developed and evaluated with three metaheuristic optimization algorithms; the best result was obtained by genetic algorithms (ANNi-GA) with an error percentage of 0.83% and an average computational time of 4.3 s. The scope of this optimization strategy was to obtain a theoretical result that allows predicting the behavior of the dryer and improving its performance for its practical application in future work through the implementation in development boards. Lastly, the optimization strategy presented is not limited to indirect solar dryers and opens a research window for evaluating other solar drying technologies.
This work presents a numerical approach to compute optimal operating conditions that maximize the absorption flux into a heat exchanger designed for absorption refrigeration systems. Experimental data were obtained from a test circuit that operates in bubble absorption mode with an inner vapor distributor into a Plate Heat Exchanger-type (PHE-type) and interacts with ammonia vapor, NH3-H2O refrigerant, and cooling water. An artificial neural network (ANN) was trained to correlate the thermal properties of the solution and absorption flux in function of easily measurable parameters (concentrations, mass flows, and pressures of saturated and diluted solutions, flow and temperature of the ammonium vapor, environment temperature, and solution temperature). According to results, ANN is adequate to correlate the operational parameters and the transport phenomena inside the heat exchanger with a precision > 99%. ANN also quantitatively identified the ammonium vapor flow (43.1%), dilute solution flow (18.1%), and dilute solution concentration (13.1%) as the variables most importantly in influencing absorption flux optimization. Subsequently, a multivariable inverse artificial neural network was applied to improve the mass transfer into the PHE-type.It was identified that simultaneous optimization of the ammonia and dilute concentration flow rates improves the absorption flow performance by up to 96.3% under a worst-case scenario (ammonia flow rate<1.4 kg/min) and even 7.04% when even when operating near the amino vapor flow limit (ammonia flow rate>2.0 kg/min). Finally, it was confirmed that incorporating the diluted solution concentration into the optimization contributes to improving the performance of the absorption process 1%. Results obtained are relevant in the search to produce more competitive absorption cooling systems, demonstrating the feasibility of improving the performance of heat exchangers without structural modifications. The proposed methodology represents an interesting option to be implemented to improve performance in solar cooling systems.
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