Title: A numerical study of a greenhouse CFD simulation including radiation heat transfer and transpiration

Authors: Karin Farber; Peter Farber; Jens Gräbel; Sebastian Krick; Peer Ueberholz

Addresses: Deceased; formerly of: IMH – Institute of Modelling and High-Performance Computing, Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Reinarzstr. 49, 47805 Krefeld, Germany ' IMH – Institute of Modelling and High-Performance Computing, Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Reinarzstr. 49, 47805 Krefeld, Germany ' IMH – Institute of Modelling and High-Performance Computing, Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Reinarzstr. 49, 47805 Krefeld, Germany ' IMH – Institute of Modelling and High-Performance Computing, Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Reinarzstr. 49, 47805 Krefeld, Germany ' IMH – Institute of Modelling and High-Performance Computing, Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Reinarzstr. 49, 47805 Krefeld, Germany

Abstract: Radiation and transpiration are important physical phenomena in greenhouses. In this paper, we present a 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of a system model of a small greenhouse to investigate heat fluxes due to radiation and transpiration. The system model of the greenhouse includes incoming radiation by the sun, radiation heat transfer exchange with the surrounding, convection heat transfer, an active ventilation, open windows, a porous media modelling tomato crop, and a transpiration model coupled to the porous medium of the tomato crop. All simulations were performed transient; modelling the global location of the city of Venlo in the Netherlands with the moving sun. The fine five million cell mesh allowed a high spatial discretisation which, together with a moderate time discretisation, showed details in transpiration and radiation absorption inside the crop as well as details of the humidity distribution inside and around the tomato crop.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics; CFD; radiation heat transfer; transpiration; greenhouse; tomato crop.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESMS.2017.085055

International Journal of Engineering Systems Modelling and Simulation, 2017 Vol.9 No.3, pp.161 - 168

Received: 24 Aug 2015
Accepted: 20 Feb 2016

Published online: 10 Jul 2017 *

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