DOI: 10.1615/ICHMT.2009.CONV
ISBN Print: 978-1-56700-261-4
ISSN Online: 2642-3499
ISSN Flash Drive: 2642-3502
MODELING AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES FOR THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF A GROUND HEAT STORAGE SYSTEM INTEGRATED WITH A GREENHOUSE
ABSTRACT
A thermal model has been developed to investigate the potential of using the stored thermal energy of the ground for greenhouse heating and cooling with the help of a ground heat storage system (GHSS) integrated with the greenhouse located in the premises of CRTEn, Tunis, Tunisia. Experiments were conducted extensively throughout the years 2006-2007, and the developed model was validated against several consecutive arbitrary days experiments. The predicted and measured values of the greenhouse air temperatures and humidities that were verified, in terms of root mean square deviation and correlation coefficient, exhibited fair agreement. The results of this study showed that the GHS system kept the inside air temperature 1–3 °C higher than that of outside air at nighttime. The main reason for this low efficiency is due to the weak heat transfer area of the water-air heat exchanger. The simulation results indicate that the GHSS does not yield any significant effect for cooling greenhouses during sunny daytime. The GHSS fulfils its full potential for a heat transfer area of 150 mІ. With this area, there occurs 4−6 °C rise of temperature in greenhouse as compared to the temperatures without GHSS and respectively 5−7.5 °C rise in greenhouse as compared to outside air.