PHOTOVOLTAIC DRYER WITH DUAL PACKED BEDS FOR DRYING MEDICAL HERB

Abstract

This work presents design and optimization of a cylindrical photovoltaic dryer with dual packed beds thermal energy storage for drying medical herb. The dryer is provided with electrical heater where the electrical energy is generated by using photovoltaic system. The electrical heater is designed and sized to realize continuouse drying (day and night) to minimize the drying time. Two packed beds are used to fix the drying temperature in dryer during day and night. The main packed bed thermal energy storage is charged during the sun-hours directly, to realize continued drying after sunset. An efficient PV dryer is devised to work under forced air created by air blower and heated by the electrical coils.     

Adaptive high-order sliding mode control based on quasi-time delay estimation for uncertain robot manipulator

This paper presents the design, and validation of a new adaptive control system based on quasi-time delay estimation (Q-TDE) augmented with new integral second-order terminal sliding mode control (ISOTSMC) for a manipulator robot with unknown dynamic uncertainty and disturbances. Contrary to the conventional TDE, the proposed Q-TDE becomes sufficient to invoke a fixed artificial time delay and utilize the past data only of the control input to approximate the unknown system''s dynamic uncertainties. The incorporating of new adaptive reaching law with ISOTSMC augmented with Q-TDE policy ensures the continuous performance tracking of the robot manipulator''s trajectories using output feedback. This combination may achieve high performance with a significant chattering reducing procedure. By utilizing the Lyapunov function theory, it can be demonstrated that the robot system is stable and all signals in closed-loop are converging in finite time. Consequently, Simulation and comparative studies with two degrees of freedom robot manipulator were carried out to validate the effectiveness of the designed control scheme.     

Dynamic characteristics and improved MPPT control of PV generator

This paper presents a mathematical model of photovoltaic (PV) module and gives a strategy to calculate online the maximum power point (MPP). The variation of series and shunt resistor are taken into account in the model and are dynamically identified using the Newton-Raphson algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed model is verified by laboratory experiments obtained by implementing the model on the dSPACE DS1104 board.     

DISCRIMINATION OF SOME TUNISIAN OLIVE OIL VARIETIES ACCORDING TO THEIR OXIDATIVE STABILITY, VOLATILES COMPOUNDS AND CHEMOMETRIC ANALYSIS

Oxidation stability is a key property of olive oil quality and is affected by different antioxidant compounds whose levels may be influenced by several factors such as cultivar and place of production. Polyphenols, carotenoids, chlorophylls, fatty acids levels and some volatiles were correlated to oxidative stability in olive oils in five samples studied. Total polyphenols and saturated to polyunsaturated fatty acids (and/or oleic to linoleic acid ratio) ratio were shown to be the major parameters in oil antioxidant stability, according to analysis of variance and principal component analysis. The hexanal/E-2-hexenal ratio is a very important indicator of the freshness of the oils and can estimate their oxidation degree.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

The present study gives information about the importance and the variability of some Tunisian olive oil varieties in both their quality (high oxidative stability) and good organoleptic properties which could be appreciated by consumers.