&ldquo;IIT Jodhpur is committed to impart quality education to facilitate the creation of qualified, competent and responsible human resources to meet the emerging technological challenges of the world. It is working towards creating an equitable learning platform that is positive, accessible and effective in the face of the modern societal and scientific advancements.

Flexibility in curriculum, in all its academic programs, encompassing elements of teaching, research, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship is the most unique feature of IIT Jodhpur. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the National Mission on Cyber Physical Systems, has identified IIT Jodhpur as a Technology &amp; Innovation Hub in the area of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. The institute has also been nominated as the coordinator for the Jodhpur City and Knowledge Cluster by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India.

The sprawling 852-acre IIT Jodhpur campus is a majestic tribute to the deep-rooted diverse cultural heritage of the region. The campus is an architectural masterpiece, which is slated to become an international exemplar of sustainability with net-zero energy, and advanced water and waste management strategies.&rdquo;

IIT Jodhpur

In present experimental investigation, a modest attempt is made to study the influence of load density and size of food product on drying efficiency of solar dryer. In order to achieve this objective, the laboratory model of mixed-mode solar dryer is fabricated and tested under indoor simulated conditions. Experiments have been performed on dryer with cylindrical potato samples of different thicknesses (5, 8 10 and 18 mm) and loading density (1.08, 2.16, 3.24 and 4.33 kg/m2 of food sample tray area) under forced air circulation. The air mass flow through dryer system is kept constant at 0.011 kg/s (1.3 m/s). Experimental variation of food product moisture content with drying time data have been plotted and analyzed for a wide range of product size and loading density. Results of experimental investigation reveal that the load density and food product size have significant effect on drying efficiency. It is also found that load density has an increasing influence on efficiency whereas the opposite trend is observed for food product size. Sensitivity analysis results indicate that both the variables are equally sensitive to overall efficiency of the dryer. © 2011 IEEE.

World University root node

Department of Mechanical Engineering

2011 World Congress on Sustainable Technologies, WCST 2011

Performance evaluation of forced convection mixed-mode solar dryer: Experimental investigation

In present study, the simple test procedure is proposed for thermal performance evaluation of solar dryers in general and mixed mode dryer in particular. Steady state heat balance concept has been applied to the absorber surface of collector-dryer assembly for identification of a dimensionless parameter called Dryer Performance Ratio (DPR) representing the effectiveness of a dryer. No-load experiments on mixed mode dryer have been performed for natural and forced air circulation under indoor controlled conditions. The dryer is tested for a wide range of operating conditions of absorbed thermal energy (300-800W/m2) and air mass flow rate (0.009-0.026 kg/s). Comparison of DPR values obtained for natural and forced air circulations indicates a significant performance improvement of 94% at the minimum air flow rate of 0.009 kg/s. It is also found that there is sharp rise in DPR by 31% is observed when airflow is increased from 0.009 to 0.017 kg/s and thereafter a marginal increase of 4% can be noticed for air flow enhancement of ∼ 53%. Another important finding of present study relates to invariable DPR values obtained for a wide range of absorbed energy and ambient air temperature data irrespective of air circulation mode adopted for a dryer. © 2011 IEEE.