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This work analyses the performance of a solar tunnel dryer for drying beef, under forced convection by using a DC blower run by a photovoltaic panel (200w). An experimental setup of solar tunnel dryer has been designed and fabricated. Experiments have been performed during summer season. The system is operated between 30ºC and 69ºC. The dryer is simple in construction, at a low cost, with locally available materials. The performance of the designed drier is evaluated by carrying drying experiments at Nagercoil, Tamilnadu, India (8.1700°N, 77.4300°E). Response surface methodology was used to investigate estimation of capacity optimization and acceptability using desirability for singleproduct. The independent variables or responses were time, air temperature and solar radiation. ANOVA also showed that the lack of fit was not significant for all response surface models, at 95% confidence level. This paper presents an evaluation of two fitting methods applied for thin layer drying of Capegooseberry (Erkan, 2016).Many studies have been reported on solar drying of various products (Fernando et al. 2015, Xiaroran et al. 2015.Out of the literature survey conducted, it is observed that tunnel dryers were not employed so far the studies on drying beef. Response surface methodology is also powerful to analyze the performance characteristics of the system. This work on tunnel dryer brings in to light, the combined effects of drying of beef using tunnel dryer and analysis through RSM. Interpretations have been developed to study the performance of the proposed system theoretically and to justify it practically.

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