This paper clarified the mechanism of the south and north roofs' effect on the thermal environment of the Chinese solar greenhouse (CSG), using a new parameter: ridge position ratio (RPR), which can describe the dynamic dependency relationship between the south and north roofs. A mathematical model was established using a method of combining computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation with experiments, then the model was used to further analyse the effect of RPR on the thermal environment of the CSG. The experimental greenhouse was simulated as an empty building to obtain results independently from these factors including crop and ventilation conditions. The results showed that the occurrence time of the maximum air temperature will be delayed when RPR increases to 0.3 during the daytime. As RPR increases, the heat storage layer of the soil gradually becomes thinner, but the north wall remains unchanged. RPR has a relatively small effect on the minimum temperature of each greenhouse part during the night. Mathematical models of the relationships between RPR, the solar energy that entered the greenhouse and the released heat energy of the enclosure structures were established, respectively. This paper can provide theoretical guidance for the structural design of the CSG.
Chinese solar greenhouses are unique facility agriculture buildings and widely used in northeastern China, providing a favorable requirement for crop growth. The north wall configurations play an essential role in heat storage and thermal insulation and directly affect the management of the internal environment. This research is devoted to further improve the thermal performance of the greenhouse and explore the potential of the north wall. A mathematical model was designed to investigate the concave-convex wall configurations based on computational fluid dynamics. Four passive heat-storage north walls were analyzed by using the same constituent materials, including a plane wall, a vertical wall, a horizontal wall and an alveolate wall. The numerical model was validated by experimental measurements. The temperature distributions of the north walls were examined and a comparative analysis of the heat storage-release capabilities was carried out. The results showed that the heatstorage capacity of the north wall is affected by the surface structure. Moreover, the critical factor influencing the air temperature is the sum of the heat load released by the wall and the energy increment of greenhouse air. The results suggested that the alveolate wall has preferable thermal accumulation capacity. The concave-convex wall configurations have a wider range of heat transfer performance along the thickness direction, while the plane wall has a superior thermal environment. This study provides a basic theoretical reference to rationally design the internal surface structures of the north wall.
OPEN ACCESSCitation: Liu X, Li H, Li Y, Yue X, Tian S, Li T (2020) Effect of internal surface structure of the north wall on Chinese solar greenhouse thermal microclimate based on computational fluid dynamics. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0231316. https://doi.
In order to further improve the utilization of solar energy in Chinese Solar Greenhouse (CSG), this paper systematically studied the effects of orientation and structure on solar radiation interception in CSG. A solar radiation model has been developed based on the previous research, which taking solar motion law, meteorological data, and optical properties of materials into consideration. The established model was used to optimize the orientation and structure of CSG. The analysis of structure considered two major structural parameters, which are the ridge height and the horizontal projection of the rear roof. Moreover, the widely used Liao-Shen type Chinese solar greenhouse (CSG-LS) has been taken as the prototype in the present research, and the measured data of the typical clear day was used for the model validation. The results showed that the ridge height has a remarkable influence on the solar energy captured by CSG-LS. Compared with the optimization of a single factor, the comprehensive optimization of orientation and structure can increase the solar radiation interception of the rear wall by 3.95%. Considering the limiting factor of heat storage-release capacity and the shading effect on the greenhouse structure, the optimal lighting construction of the CSG-LS (with a span of 9.0 m) was specified as 7~9° from south to west of azimuth angle, 4.5~4.7 m ridge height, and 1.4~1.6 m horizontal projection of the rear roof at 42°N latitude. The proposed solar radiation model can provide scientific guidance for the CSG-LS construction in different areas.
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