numerical simulation

In livestock and specifically poultry houses, controlling the internal environment conditions is a key factor to increase animal productivity and prevent their casualties. Controlling the atmospheric conditions like the air temperature and gas concentration in semi-enclosed spaces like poultry houses can improve the living conditions. Experimental tests on the atmospheric conditions of livestock and poultry houses are challengeable and due to limitation of measurement points, unstable climate conditions and experimental errors. Simulation of the air temperature and momentum conditions is used unlimitedly with computer resources by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods to overcome the limitations of experimental tests. This method has vast abilities of parametric analysis and predicting the optimum range of functional parameters. So in this research, the air temperature and velocity distribution of a poultry house were simulated using CFD to achieve the best condition for the air ventilation and uniform temperature distribution.   

In the present study, the geometrical model of poultry house was created using Gambit software and meshed. The mesh independence study was also performed. According to the results, 166550 elements were enough to solve the problem with an acceptable accuracy.The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation was selected to simulate the momentum transfer inside the poultry house. The k-ε model is one of the most used turbulence models for industrial applications. The main assumption in this model is that the flow is incompressible and that the fluid is Newtonian. A transient heat transfer equation within the fluid domain was selected to predict the air temperature that describes a time-dependent process that includes the conduction and convection terms. All the boundary condition was measured experimentally during 24 hours and their temperature was modeled using the proper mathematical models and applied to the developed model. The mathematical models were solved simultaneously in ANSYS- FLUENT software. The developed simulator was validated experimentally by measuring the air temperature of some specified locations (13 points).

The results demonstrate that the model enjoyed satisfactory accuracy so that the RMSE value between the measured and predicted air temperature was in the range of 0.405 to 1.29 and the simulator could predict the air temperature with the accuracy of 0.6 degrees. Therefore, it is possible to use the validated simulator for the real-time controlling of poultry houses to optimize the ventilation process. According to the results, the high heterogeneity in the air temperature and about an 18-degree difference was observed in the air temperature distribution at various locations of poultry houses. In addition, the air velocity was not uniform at the different plans of poultry house; especially in the central points of poultry house, it was higher than 1 m/s that is higher than the recommended value. Therefore, the simulator was used to improve the ventilation of the poultry house. The results of various simulations carried out indicated that the angle of the air inlets vents affects the air turbulence. Also, the air temperature and velocity distribution were more uniform when the air inlet vents were across each other. Therefore, some new gates were opened and the angle of the existing gates was changed to improve the ventilation condition of the poultry house. By such modification, the ventilation condition of the poultry house was improved and the air velocity and temperature distribution in the optimized house were more uniform than that observed in the primary one. The air temperature and velocity were in the range of 291 to 297 K (18 to 24 °C) and 0.23 and 0.46 m s-1, respectively. These values are at the recommended condition for poultry houses.

The opening angle of the vents had a significant effect on the air distribution. Application of across vents in the  side-walls of poultry house led to uniform distribution of air velocity and temperature. The developed simulator has good performance and accuracy to design and construct poultry houses.

In this study pressure drop of bin containing corn as granular porous material with two common inlet duct arrangements (H, F) for a laboratory silage was studied by using experimental method. Higher pressure was obtained for the F arrangement compare to the H arrangement. The Ergun equation was fitted on the pressure drop of empirical data and the correction coefficients of modified Ergun equation for both H and F arrangements were determined. The coefficient of determination, mean root square error and mean relative error were used as indices to investigate the goodness of fitness between the empirical data and Ergun equation, and the equation had good fitness on the empirical data. The numerical simulation was carried out by finite element simulation of COMSOL Multiphysics v5.3 software using the modified Ergun equation. Moreover, distribution of velocity and flow lines within the bin was also presented.

Drying process is not uniform in the common rice dryers (batch type dryers). In order to decrease this problem, two types of passing hot air dryer consisted of the lateral and central patterns has been defined and method of air distribution in the rice porous media modeled by Fluent software in transient condition. In the lateral pattern, air enters through the side walls of the dryer chamber and in the central pattern, air enters through the central channel of the dryer chamber. The air temperature is 40 oc and air flow rate is 550 m3/h in all models. The results of simulation illustrate, the air flows more rapidly in the central pattern and penetrates into all parts of the dryer chamber. There is not any central passing air channel in the lateral pattern so, it caused to produce an irregular temperature field with high distortion. Models were verified in steady state condition. Results show the final temperature of model was near the measured data with 2% deviation.

Interaction between soil and machine is essential challenge for researchers, developers, designers and manufacturers of agricultural machineries. Modeling of tillage equipment is an important Engineering work. However, interaction modeling is a complex process due to three-dimensional changes in soil, nonlinear soil behavior phenomenon and soil flow quality in connection area between the soil and tool and the dynamic effects of equipment. Correct simulation of the interaction of soil is the key point for the optimization of tillage tools and can eliminate required field tests with high costs. The purpose of this study is to develop a three-dimensional model of a vibrating subsoiler using discrete element method, simulation frequency and oscillation angle on the performance of vibration subsoiler and determining different parameters affecting the simulation results. The information from model simulation will be useful for the design and optimization of vibrating subsoiler. For modeling soil mass as a granular material, the computer program PFC3D. Blade was moved with angular and transition speed in the positive x-axis direction. For non-vibrating blade only included transition speed and for vibration blade in addition to transition speed, angular velocity was also defined. Working depth was 38 cm and blade speed of 0.89 meters per second was defined. To evaluate the effect of vibration angle on vibrating subsoiler different vibration of 27, 16, 8, zero,-14.5,-22.5 degrees in frequency of 4.9 Hz and amplitude of ± 69 amplitude was tested by simulation. In all vibration tests in comparison with non-vibrating,with Increasing vibration angle (positive and negative), the amount of vertical displacement of blade increased which caused more soil rupture. Simulation results showed that the rate of boundary work, kinetic energy and friction work at positive angles were more than negative vibration angles. With increasing negative angle boundary work and friction work significantly decreased. Changing the angle from -22.5 to 27 degrees decreased average bond energy of particles.