Design and Analysis of Automatic Fish Dryer Prototype

Abstract

Indonesia has lots of natural resources especially in marine sector such as yellowstripe scad and long-jawed mackerel. Those fish are usually dried by fisherman for longer storage using conventional drying by heat from the sun. This conventional drying method takes hours, about two or three days depends on sun heat intensity. Based on that problem, mechanical drying system may overcome the problem. Automatic fish dryer is designed to dry the fish effectively with even heat distribution with palette rotation system which is hoped to increase productivity and economic potential for coastal communities. The prototype is designed theoretically with mechanical design to generate part specification including heater, shaft, electric motor, bearing, pulley and transmission. CFD method to discover the heat distribution inside with 5,239 nodes and STD k-ε turbulence model. A 400 mm × 500 mm × 420 mm prototype is generated to dry 2 kg of long-jawed mackerels in 5.3 h with 0.00419 g/s for drying mass flow rate from 70 to 30% water content. CFD simulation shows the exhaust fan need to be installed at outlet for better water-vapor flow distribution. This research indicates that automatic fish dryer can dry 4 times faster than conventional drying system.