Numerical Investigation of The Air Flow Rate Effect Performance of Earth to Air Heat Exchanger Used for Cooling of Poultry Houses

Abstract

Usually, poultry houses are located in a remote area where there is no electricity, and where there is electricity, it is expensive, so resorting to these solutions is considered important solutions to save electrical energy and provide free cooling. The main part of generated energy is consumed by cooling and heating systems. One of the well-known approaches to implemented heating and cooling system is earth to air heat exchanger (EAHE) system. This system is effective passive heating and cooling systems which can be used with poultry houses and building. This research studies numerically the effect of mass flow rate on the overall performance of earth to air HE for poultry houses. Four parameters (mass flow rate, required rate, required cooling load and pipe lengths) are selected under environment of Nasiriyah city (a city located in the south of Iraq). The study is conducted using PVC material. The study has been done during summer season. The suggested numerical model has been tested and validated using existing approaches selected from literature review papers. This test shows good agreement with results of selected papers. Moreover, validation and simulation results showed that the required cooling load increased with increasing mass flow rate. Also, with the increasing length of pipe of EAHE, the inflow temperature compared to the space temperature is decreased. However, the overall performance factor of EAHEs decreases by the increase of length of pipe and mass flow rate. Which indicate the possibility of using the earth to air heat exchanger for cooling and heating poultry houses and reduce the use of electrical energy.