Title: CFD modelling of air temperature distribution inside tunnel greenhouse in semi-arid region

Authors: Dhahri Maher; Ameur Sami; Aouinet Hana

Addresses: Higher Institute of Agricultural Sciences of Chott Mariem, University of Sousse, BP N° 47, 4042 Sousse, Tunisia ' Higher Institute of Agricultural Sciences of Chott Mariem, University of Sousse, BP N° 47, 4042 Sousse, Tunisia ' National Engineering School of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, BP N°37, Le Belvedere, 1002 Tunis, Tunisia

Abstract: In the semi-arid region of the southern Mediterranean especially the middle east of Tunisia, one of the main problems of climates is the large diurnal amplitude of temperature, with too low temperature during winter nights and too height temperature during summer day for successful plant growth and development the control of greenhouse environmental parameters is very important. In this work, a computational fluid dynamic software (CFX15.0) was used to study the micro-climate in a 6 × 8 m² plastic tunnel. The validity of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was investigated by comparing these results with experimental data collected on strategic days during a period of two months from 1 April to 5 May, 2016. The experiments were conducted in naturally ventilated for two different cases; in close and opening tunnel greenhouse. A very good agreement between experimental and numerical temperature values was verified.

Keywords: greenhouse tunnel; natural ventilation; CFD; computational fluid dynamics; climate heterogeneity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESMS.2018.091929

International Journal of Engineering Systems Modelling and Simulation, 2018 Vol.10 No.2, pp.112 - 124

Received: 18 Jan 2017
Accepted: 12 Aug 2017
Published online: 21 May 2018 *

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