Solar frying of pine lumber: verification of a mathematical model

Abstract

This work presents verification of a mathematical model for drying of a wood stack in a greenhousetype solar dryer. A simplified heat and mass transfer numerical model has been developed with inputparameters based on the actual metrological data of a Moroccan climate. For its validation, a comparativestudy is performed in this work; the present model is solved to simulate the solar drying of pine woodusing experimental data of previous wood drying experiments. The average relative discrepanciesbetween the model predicted and experimental data are 1,2% for wood moisture content, 1% for dryingair temperature and 5% for the air relative humidity. The close agreement between the predicted andexperimental results shows the ability of the model to reproduce experimental drying data for wood