Application of dynamic model to predict some inside environment variables in a semi-solar greenhouse

Abstract

Greenhouses are one of the most effective cultivation methods with a yield per cultivated area up to 10 times more than free land cultivation but the use of fossil fuels in this production field is very high. The greenhouse environment is an uncertain nonlinear system which classical modeling methods have some problems to solve it. There are many control methods, such as adaptive, feedback and intelligent control and they require a precise model. Therefore, many modeling methods have been proposed for this purpose; including physical, transfer function and black-box modeling. The objective of this paper is to modeling and experimental validation of some inside environment variables in an innovative greenhouse structure (semi-solar greenhouse). For this propose, a semi-solar greenhouse was designed and constructed at the North-West of Iran in Azerbaijan Province (38°10′N and 46°18′E with elevation of 1364 m above the sea level). The main inside environment factors include inside air temperature (Ta) and inside soil temperature (Ts) were collected as the experimental data samples. The dynamic heat transfer model used to estimate the temperature in two different points of semi-solar greenhouse with initial values. The results showed that dynamic model can predict the inside temperatures in two different points (Ta and Ts) with RMSE, MAPE and EF about 5.3 °C, 10.2% and 0.78% and 3.45 °C, 7.7% and 0.86%, respectively.