Thermal Capacity of Hog-Cooling Pad

Abstract

Abstract. Modern hog farrowing operations have reached a state in which the environmental conditions necessary for piglets are vastly different than those required by sows. A hog-cooling pad has been developed by Purdue University researchers to alleviate thermally-induced stress in the sow. Understanding the basic thermal properties of the device is critical to the development of the technology, and this article documents the experimentation performed on the unit to measure some of those characteristics. A preliminary experimental investigation into the thermal response of the device with no external heat loading under a variety of coolant flow and temperatures is presented. The sow-cooling panel reacts as a Newtonian convective device and provides a uniform top surface temperature. The results indicate that device is highly conductive to the top panel and reasonably well insulated from the environment. Keywords: Convection, Cooling, Farrowing, Heat capacity, Swine, Thermal response.

Use of Different Cooling Methods in Pig Facilities to Alleviate the Effects of Heat Stress—A Review

“…In the above-mentioned study [ 77 ], air temperatures were within the range of 20.8 °C to 26.9 °C. However, the other scientists tested the effectiveness of conductive cooling in sows when the ambient temperature increased to a value of 35 °C [ 8 , 75 , 78 ]. It was found that conductive-cooling pads (water at 18 °C) was pumped through pads at a flow rate of 4 L/min affected lower respiratory rate during acute heat stress exposition [ 78 ].…”

“…However, the increase of ambient temperature, which has been a global concern, calls for new methods and additional technology to improve cooling of the animals during summer. The heat stress conditions is a major factor which affect animal health and production, especially in modern genetic lines [ 7 , 8 ].…”

“…In pig housing, technologies based on increasing air velocity such as zone cooling and tunnel ventilation have often been used [ 5 , 9 ]. Especially for individually kept sows at the phase of pregnancy or lactation, the enhancing of conductive heat exchange by using floor-cooling technologies may also contribute to alleviating the consequences of heat stress [ 8 , 10 ].…”

Effect of Floor Cooling on Behavior and Heart Rate of Late Lactation Sows Under Acute Heat Stress

“…Given that sows within a farrowing room may be at different stages of lactation, have different litter sizes and be producing heat unequally, individual sow cooling has the possibility to confer more production and welfare benefits than whole room cooling. Recently, a cooling pad has been designed to increase the potential removal of excess heat of modern lactating sows in high environmental temperatures ( 31 ). It showed beneficial effects on the sows' respiration rates, and vaginal, skin, and rectal temperatures ( 32 ), with a “dose-dependent” decrease for all traits with increasing water flow rates from LOW to HIGH (from 0.25 to 0.85 L/min for 100 min) in comparison to a CONTROL flow rate (0.00 L/min).…”

Global warming impact on confined livestock in buildings: efficacy of adaptation measures to reduce heat stress for growing-fattening pigs

“…The second group influences the immediate thermal vicinity of the animals. Examples for such AMs are floor cooling (conductive cooling) (Bull et al 1997;Cabezon et al 2017;Silva et al 2009), higher air velocity at the animal level to increase the convective heat release (wind-chill effect) (e.g., by tunnel ventilation, booster fans, and hybrid ventilation systems) (Zhang and Bjerg 2017), radiative cooling by a cooled cover of the laying zone (Pang et al 2010), cooled drinking water (Jeon et al 2006;Renaudeau et al 2012), wallows (Bracke 2011;de Mello et al 2017), or water baths (Huynh et al 2006). The AMs of the first group can be evaluated by simulation models at the housing level, whereas the second group needs models at the animal level, which describe the heat release and the thermal regulation for individual animals.…”