Citation:
Abstract:
Greenhouses play an important role in the field of agriculture, allowing the grower to have more control on the environmental factors that govern the behaviour of crops. The interactions of the environmental factors on the inside climate of a greenhouse are complex and involve a set of physical mechanisms that constitute challenges to modellers. To better assess the greenhouse climatic behaviour, a CFD modelling approach was developed and combined with field surveys considering a Venlo, closed greenhouse, under semi arid conditions. Measurements were undertaken at different heights along a vertical cross-section at the centre of the greenhouse. The components of the greenhouse were then integrated inside a CFD distributed climate model. The boundary conditions were inferred from the outside climatic conditions, taking account both of radiative and convective transfers through the walls. Simulations were conducted under pseudo-steady state conditions (i.e., updating the boundary conditions at each time step) all day long, and several scenarios (clear or cloudy day) were simulated to analyse to what extent the inside climate of the green¬house responds to the outside climate conditions.