Numerical Model for the Convective Heat and Mass Flow for the Internal Climate of Greenhouse
Dickson Kande,
Titus Rotich,
Fredrick Nyamwala
Issue:
Volume 8, Issue 3, September 2023
Pages:
31-44
Received:
20 May 2023
Accepted:
12 June 2023
Published:
9 October 2023
Abstract: In the last three decades, sub-division of farming land for settlement coupled with climatic variability and changes has presented a threat to food security by affecting the annual rainfall cycles, soil moisture and production. This called for responsive strategies in terms in order to deal with the threats posed where one of them is greenhouse farming where more favorable temperatures are obtained by applying the appropriate control methods. With this in mind, researchers of this paper aimed to improve the current and increase greenhouse farming in the Central Kenya region which has been one of the country’s food baskets and has been greatly affected. In a greenhouse, heat and mass transfer, is mainly through convection where convection is used to refer to the sum of advection and diffusion transfer. Ventilation is one of the most important components for the success of a greenhouse as it regulates the temperature, humidity and vapor pressure deficit to the required levels. To achieve this, controlled ventilation was adopted to provide right amount of dry air to sustain the evaporative cooling rate, without causing an unwanted rise in vapor pressure deficit and air temperature. The greenhouse is a dynamic controllable system implemented in either cold or hot regions to provide a specific climate conditions for the plants, where they will not grow optimally. The micro-climate parameters in a greenhouse are mainly the air temperature and the relative humidity which can be predicted by conducting experiments or by simulation. In relation to convection heat and mass transfer inside a greenhouse, this is required for two reasons: to regulate the greenhouse temperature and to remove water vapor transpired by the plants. A mathematical model which is a mathematical description of properties and interactions in the system is developed for the greenhouse under study. This paper implemented an RKM4 model of convective heat and mass transfer for ventilation and cooling systems inside a greenhouse based on the governing equations of fluid dynamics.
Abstract: In the last three decades, sub-division of farming land for settlement coupled with climatic variability and changes has presented a threat to food security by affecting the annual rainfall cycles, soil moisture and production. This called for responsive strategies in terms in order to deal with the threats posed where one of them is greenhouse far...
Show More
