Evaluation of the earth-air heat exchanger's performance in improving the indoor conditions of an industrial poultry house using computational fluid dynamics verified with field tests

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the performance of an Earth Air Heat Exchanger (EAHE) to improve the indoor conditions of an industrial poultry building after its installation, considering the optimal position and installation configuration (separate or collected inlets), which have not been addressed previously. In this regard, an industrial broiler house containing 20,000 chickens equipped with four cooling pads operated by a mechanical ventilation system located in Biskra, Algeria, was simulated with six scenarios, including the original. The model developed is verified with the field test measurements and experimental and numerical data in the literature. The results showed that optimizing the cooling pad position increases average indoor air temperature and velocity distribution by 0.1% and 8%, respectively. Moreover, the position and configuration of installing the EAHE inlets play an important role in uniforming indoor air distribution. Scenario 3, with 80 EAHE inlets versus exhaust fans, has the best indoor air uniformity, with a maximum velocity and temperature difference between its sections of 1.15 m s−1 and 1.4 K, respectively. Overall, EAHE showed a good ability to cool and maintain appropriate indoor air temperatures, achieving a difference of 15 °C between inside and outside, in addition to providing annual energy savings of 921,600 kWh/year and reducing 30,643 tons of CO2 emissions during its lifespan, in contrast, its simple payback time estimated 4 years.