Modeling of a hazelnut dryer assisted heat pump by using artificial neural networks

The artificial neural network (ANN) approach is generic technique for mapping non-linear relationships between inputs and outputs without knowing the details of these relationships. In this paper, an application of the ANN has been presented for a PID controlled heat pump dryer. In PID controlled heat pump dryer, air velocity changed according to the temperature value which is set in process control device. Heat pump dryer was tested drying of hazelnut at 40 °C, 45 °C and 50 °C drying air temperatures. By training the experiment results with ANN, drying air velocities, moisture content of hazelnuts and total drying time were predicted for 42 °C, 44 °C, 46 °C and 48 °C drying air temperatures.