Experimental verification of a CFD model for the closed plant factory under artificial lighting

Wei Lu,Xin Zhang,Qichang Yang,Shenghan Zhou,Quan Yuan,Houcheng Liu,Jiangtao Hu,Yangxia Zheng,Yiwen Hu,Xiaoting Zhou,Yinjian Zheng,X Wei

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/202021303013

Abstract

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for the closed plant factory under artificial lighting has been developed in this study, the experimental verification of CFD model with the air velocity value was compared with the measured air temperature value. The results showed that the mean relative error of validation with the air velocity was 15%, and comparable with experimentally observed air temperature profile inside the plant factory with RMSE of 3% which show the utility of CFD to study plant factory microclimatic parameters.

Highlights

Plant factory is an important way using scientific management technology to reform Chinese traditional agriculture, is advanced facility agriculture, is an important symbol of the development ability level of our country's economic modernization agricultural enterprises, and is the direction of the development of the world agricultural society in the 21st century[1]
(2) The simulated value was compared with the measured value of air velocity to verify the accuracy of the model
ACIC 2020 geometric model of plant factory was established (4800mm(Length)×2800mm(width)×2600mm(height)); the top inlet was simplified to a side length of 400mm square; and the two sides of the wall were simplified to nine return vents(600mm×200mm)

Summary

Introduction

Plant factory is an important way using scientific management technology to reform Chinese traditional agriculture, is advanced facility agriculture, is an important symbol of the development ability level of our country's economic modernization agricultural enterprises, and is the direction of the development of the world agricultural society in the 21st century[1]. As many years of practice have shown, plant factories have more outstanding advantages than other production methods, which are manifested in strong crop production plans; the yield per unit area can be increased by 30~40 times more than that of open field cultivation[2]; no spraying of pesticides and no pollution of the environment[3]; high utilization efficiency of land and water resource. The environmental factors affecting plant production include temperature environment, airflow environment, light environment, humidity environment and carbon dioxide environment[5]. The suitable air velocity of plant leaves can regulate the microenvironment, while reducing water condensation to avoid high wet diseases, promote crop growth and increase stress resistance, and improve product quality[6]. The optimum air velocity of indoor potted pepper was about 0.8 m·s-1, no wind or high wind velocity was not conducive to the pepper growth[7].In the CFD research of plant factories, Zhang et al.[8] establish a three-

Materials and methods

2.2.Experimental methods

Results and discussions

Conclusions