Date of Completion

Spring 5-1-2023

Thesis Advisor(s)

Sung Yuel Park, Ali Gokirmak

Honors Major

Electrical Engineering

Disciplines

Controls and Control Theory | Electrical and Electronics | Power and Energy

Abstract

The passive solar lumber drying kiln design, developed by EE Senior Design Team 2317 is presented, tested, and discussed. The design incorporates solar power and a custom control system to dry 12’ lumber boards inside a shipping container much faster than air-drying methods, which can take up to a year for thorough drying, though this can be extended due to the unpredictability of weather events and conditions. This work presents the design as in the final report provided by the team, but provides a more detailed explanation and analysis of the microcontroller system, testing methods and outcomes, alternate solutions and possible future work. For the microcontroller system, methods and hardware are thoroughly discussed. For testing, although the prototype was never tested on actual lumber, small-scale testing was conducted as a proof-of-concept. Lastly, several alternate approaches are detailed. If the budget had been larger, many of these ideas may have been used, though future work could be done to improve the final state of the system to achieve these designs.

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