Experimental investigation of solar PVT collector with the dryer on mass and temperature of dried red chili with Machine Learning Models

The growing demand for efficient drying methods in agricultural processes has motivated researchers to explore hybrid systems using photovoltaic and thermal systems. One challenge faced in this research was the limited amount of drying days and dealing with one crop (red chilies), which could limit...

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Main Authors: Miroslav Mahdal, K. Rajathi, Muniyandy Elangovan, Prabhukumar Sellamuthu, Amit Verma
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-09-01
Series:Results in Engineering
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123025018985
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author Miroslav Mahdal
K. Rajathi
Muniyandy Elangovan
Prabhukumar Sellamuthu
Amit Verma
author_facet Miroslav Mahdal
K. Rajathi
Muniyandy Elangovan
Prabhukumar Sellamuthu
Amit Verma
author_sort Miroslav Mahdal
collection DOAJ
description The growing demand for efficient drying methods in agricultural processes has motivated researchers to explore hybrid systems using photovoltaic and thermal systems. One challenge faced in this research was the limited amount of drying days and dealing with one crop (red chilies), which could limit the potential application for other crops. The kinetics of drying red chilies with a photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system were in combination with a dryer, and the objective was to enhance the drying process of red chilies under various environmental conditions of surface glazing temperature, solar radiation, the temperature of the outflow fluid, and ambient temperature. Three drying techniques open sun drying, forced convection drying, and natural convection drying with varying flow velocities served as the foundation for the research. Using this controlled case-study method, 3 kg of red chilies were dried under standard sun radiation from an ambient temperature of 31 °C to a high of 58 °C. The moisture content reduction process was measured by starting with 79 % moisture content by weight after drying the red chilies for a total of six days conducting the experiments between 9am and 4pm during Mars, April, and May 2023, each time on clear days with direct sunlight. The drying process was stop at 11 % moisture content after 6-day testing round of red chilies drying. Machine learning (ML) models, namely the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Radial Basis Function (RBF), and Decision Tree (DT), were used to forecast the temperature and mass dryness variables.The RBF model showed the best performance with 0.98, 0.95, and 0.92 for temperature dryness, above MLP and DM. The research finds that the RBF model had the highest capacity to forecast drying efficiency and that forced convection drying is more effective than open solar drying.
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spelling doaj-art-eb58c03f28bb4fd19888f50e6b7a62942025-08-20T03:26:56ZengElsevierResults in Engineering2590-12302025-09-012710582710.1016/j.rineng.2025.105827Experimental investigation of solar PVT collector with the dryer on mass and temperature of dried red chili with Machine Learning ModelsMiroslav Mahdal0K. Rajathi1Muniyandy Elangovan2Prabhukumar Sellamuthu3Amit Verma4Department of Control Systems and Instrumentation, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech RepublicDepartment of Computer Science, Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu 600 062, IndiaDepartment of Biosciences, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai 602 105, India; Applied Science Research Centre, Applied Science Private University, Amman, Jordan; Corresponding author.Department of Mechanical Engineering, Presidency University, Bengaluru 560064, IndiaUniversity Centre for Research and Development, Chandigarh University, Gharuan Mohali, Punjab, IndiaThe growing demand for efficient drying methods in agricultural processes has motivated researchers to explore hybrid systems using photovoltaic and thermal systems. One challenge faced in this research was the limited amount of drying days and dealing with one crop (red chilies), which could limit the potential application for other crops. The kinetics of drying red chilies with a photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system were in combination with a dryer, and the objective was to enhance the drying process of red chilies under various environmental conditions of surface glazing temperature, solar radiation, the temperature of the outflow fluid, and ambient temperature. Three drying techniques open sun drying, forced convection drying, and natural convection drying with varying flow velocities served as the foundation for the research. Using this controlled case-study method, 3 kg of red chilies were dried under standard sun radiation from an ambient temperature of 31 °C to a high of 58 °C. The moisture content reduction process was measured by starting with 79 % moisture content by weight after drying the red chilies for a total of six days conducting the experiments between 9am and 4pm during Mars, April, and May 2023, each time on clear days with direct sunlight. The drying process was stop at 11 % moisture content after 6-day testing round of red chilies drying. Machine learning (ML) models, namely the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Radial Basis Function (RBF), and Decision Tree (DT), were used to forecast the temperature and mass dryness variables.The RBF model showed the best performance with 0.98, 0.95, and 0.92 for temperature dryness, above MLP and DM. The research finds that the RBF model had the highest capacity to forecast drying efficiency and that forced convection drying is more effective than open solar drying.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123025018985Red chiliesElectrical and thermal efficiencyPhotovoltaic thermalSolar dryerSolar radiationTemperature
spellingShingle Miroslav Mahdal
K. Rajathi
Muniyandy Elangovan
Prabhukumar Sellamuthu
Amit Verma
Experimental investigation of solar PVT collector with the dryer on mass and temperature of dried red chili with Machine Learning Models
Results in Engineering
Red chilies
Electrical and thermal efficiency
Photovoltaic thermal
Solar dryer
Solar radiation
Temperature
title Experimental investigation of solar PVT collector with the dryer on mass and temperature of dried red chili with Machine Learning Models
title_full Experimental investigation of solar PVT collector with the dryer on mass and temperature of dried red chili with Machine Learning Models
title_fullStr Experimental investigation of solar PVT collector with the dryer on mass and temperature of dried red chili with Machine Learning Models
title_full_unstemmed Experimental investigation of solar PVT collector with the dryer on mass and temperature of dried red chili with Machine Learning Models
title_short Experimental investigation of solar PVT collector with the dryer on mass and temperature of dried red chili with Machine Learning Models
title_sort experimental investigation of solar pvt collector with the dryer on mass and temperature of dried red chili with machine learning models
topic Red chilies
Electrical and thermal efficiency
Photovoltaic thermal
Solar dryer
Solar radiation
Temperature
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123025018985
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AT muniyandyelangovan experimentalinvestigationofsolarpvtcollectorwiththedryeronmassandtemperatureofdriedredchiliwithmachinelearningmodels
AT prabhukumarsellamuthu experimentalinvestigationofsolarpvtcollectorwiththedryeronmassandtemperatureofdriedredchiliwithmachinelearningmodels
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