Implementation of ventilation towers in a greenhouse established in low altitude tropical climate conditions: numerical approach to the behavior of the natural ventilation

ABSTRACT

Deficient ventilation rates and airflow patterns in naturally ventilated greenhouses are the main causes for the generation of inadequate and heterogeneous thermal conditions inside this type of structure. In this research, a numerical study was developed using a two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model validated in a Colombian greenhouse established under warm climate conditions (PG). The objective of the research was to evaluate the effect on natural ventilation generated by the coupling of two ventilation towers on the PG greenhouse, scenario called MPG. The results indicated that airflow patterns over the region where crops are established in MPG are between 25.9% and up to 142.5% faster compared to PG, which generates ventilation rates up to 57.3% higher in MPG, which is why the temperature distribution under this scenario is more homogeneous inside the structure and its average thermal differential with the outside environment does not exceed 1.1 °C.

Keywords:
ventilation rates; CFD simulation; air flows; thermal differential