Modelling Of Animal Occupied Zones In Cfd

Methods to model animal occupied zones in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for predictions of air properties are explored. The study was based on CFD analysis supported by experimental validation. Animal occupied zone (AOZ) are modelled as a porous media to reduce the computational cost. Here, the porous media was modelled in two ways. The first with constant and uniform values of porous-resistance coefficients throughout AOZ and called the porous-media method (POM), and the second with porous resistance considered according to the spatial location of the occupants and called profiled-porous-media method (PPOM). For POM, a CFD sub-study was required to estimate the porous media resistance coefficients. For PPOM, porous resistances were considered as infinite at the spatial-locations of occupants but elsewhere the resistance was zero -no separate study for estimating resistance coefficients were required. Results of the simulations with both POM and PPOM were compared with the CFD simulations when animals were present in AOZ. It was concluded that it is possible to model AOZ as a POM or PPOM. However, in POM, the coefficients of porous-media were layout dependent and a separate study for estimation of porous-media coefficients will always be required for each single layout. Moreover, POM under-predicted the average velocities in AOZ. On the other hand, there were two benefits of PPOM. Firstly, no separate study was required for the estimation of porous coefficients and the secondly it gave more realistic average velocities in the AOZ. Average temperatures in AOZ were accurately predicted by both POM and PPOM.(c) 2021 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.