Abstract
Abstract. Air velocity is a contributing factor to maintaining a production environment that promotes production efficiency, thermal comfort, and animal well-being. Variations in size, design, and equipment of production facilities contribute greatly to the air velocity generated. This study assessed mean cross-sectional air velocities and total air flow of two broiler production facilities. Test facility 1 was an 18.3 A— 170.7 m smooth sidewall broiler production facility and test facility 2 was a 12.19 A— 121.9 m curtain sidewall broiler production facility. Air velocity was characterized down each house with a Scalable Environment Assessment System (SEAS). Cross-sections were measured at 2.44 m and 3.05 m intervals in the axial direction for test facility 1 and 2 respectively. Total air flow was measured with Fan Assessment and Numeration System (FANS) units. Normalized cross-sectional air velocity was plotted against proportion of total house length to compare the cross-sectional air velocity of the two facilities. Test facility 1 showed 26.5% of the total house length below superficial velocity while test facility 2 only had 17.5% below superficial velocity. Test facility 1 demonstrated 11.4% of the facility length below normalized superficial velocity for temperature control at the exhaust fan end of the facility. Physical arrangement of the feed hoppers, heating systems, and tunnel fans are important for improving uniformity of air velocity in commercial broiler houses.
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