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International Journal of Agricultural Research

Year: 2011 | Volume: 6 | Issue: 6 | Page No.: 458-469
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Authors

L. Serir

H. Benmoussa

P.E. Bournet

Keywords

Research Article

Numerical Analysis of the Influence of Soil-Air Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient on the Global Indoor Climate Model of a Closed Plastic Tunnel Greenhouse

L. Serir, H. Benmoussa and P.E. Bournet
Crop growth in greenhouses is strongly influenced by the local inside climate. In the present study, a model for predicting the thermal and water behaviour inside an unheated closed plastic tunnel greenhouse is presented. The energy balance method is applied to each element of the shelter: cover, indoor air and soil surface. Radiative transfers are included by calculating view factors. This model is connected to another model for the subsoil. The corresponding modules were integrated in the TRNSYS (Transient Simulation system) environment. TRNSYS includes weather data and calculates the solar radiation distribution, sky temperature and psychrometric properties. The simulations predict three main parameters under transient conditions: the indoor air temperature, the soil temperature and the indoor humidity. The present study also focuses on the cover temperature in response to the inside and outside conditions. Results provided by the model were validated with fair agreement against experimentations conducted for an unheated closed plastic tunnel greenhouse located in Angers (47.43N, 0.55°E). Based upon the results of the simulations and the experimentation, it is shown that the convective heat transfer between the soil surface and the indoor air affects significantly the indoor climate. Moreover, the use of correlations of this coefficient depends on the direction of heat flow; a specific correlation is applied with upward heat flow and another one with undergoing downward heat flow.
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