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Agronomy
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Application of Fluid Mechanics in Air Quality Management of Agricultural...
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Application of Fluid Mechanics in Air Quality Management of Agricultural Facilities and Rural Environment

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Biosystem and Biological Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 18617

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Se-Woon Hong

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Rural and Bio-systems Engineering, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Korea
Interests: atmospheric dispersion in rural areas; micro-environmental control in agricultural buildings; fluid dynamic analysis for agricultural structures; agricultural wind engineering

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Air quality has a great influence on agricultural productivity as well as on the health of farm workers. For intensive farming, it is of utmost importance in providing the most favorable air conditions for individual crops and animals. Furthermore, air pollutants emitted from agricultural production systems, such as ammonia from heavily fertilized fields and livestock waste, pesticides from crop fields, particulate matters from grain processing, bioaerosols and pathogens from livestock facilities, soil dusts from dry fields, and other gases and odors, can threaten nearby residents, environment, and ecosystems when they spread over rural areas.

Over the decades, we have struggled to manage air quality in agricultural facilities and rural environment and developed relevant methodologies and tools. Fluid mechanics is one of the strong approaches that predict and assess air quality impacts of engineering systems and has been actively used for this research topic. It applies knowledge on the movement of air and airborne pollutants to research and facilitates a visual understanding of air flows. It provides better insight into ongoing processes and makes predictions about potential solutions thereafter.

The goal of this Special Issue is to provide the members of multidisciplinary communities with a collection of manuscripts that present recent trends and innovative studies. Please share your success and ongoing research. Submissions on (but not limited to) the following topics are invited: 1) microclimate control or air quality management in greenhouses, livestock barns, warehouses, storages, silos, etc.; 2) atmospheric dispersion of gases, odors, dust, chemicals, or other pollutants emitted by agricultural activities in rural environment; 3) innovative and novel application of fluid mechanics to develop air quality control systems for agricultural production systems; and 4) agronomic practices based on knowledge and findings related to fluid mechanics.

Dr. Se-Woon Hong
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Fluid mechanics
  • Computational fluid dynamics
  • Microclimate control
  • Atmospheric dispersion
  • Air quality
  • Air scrubber
  • Greenhouse
  • Livestock barn
  • Silos
  • Agricultural buildings
  • Ammonia
  • Livestock odor
  • Pesticide drift
  • Bioaerosol dispersion
  • Dust removal

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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30 pages, 6389 KiB  
Article
Particulate Matter Dispersion Modeling in Agricultural Applications: Investigation of a Transient Open Source Solver
by David Janke, Senthilathiban Swaminathan, Sabrina Hempel, Robert Kasper and Thomas Amon
Agronomy 2021, 11(11), 2246; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11112246 - 06 Nov 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2127
Abstract
Agriculture is a major emitter of particulate matter (PM), which causes health problems and can act as a carrier of the pathogen material that spreads diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate an open-source solver that simulates the transport and dispersion [...] Read more.
Agriculture is a major emitter of particulate matter (PM), which causes health problems and can act as a carrier of the pathogen material that spreads diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate an open-source solver that simulates the transport and dispersion of PM for typical agricultural applications. We investigated a coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian solver within the open source software package OpenFOAM. The continuous phase was solved using transient large eddy simulations, where four different subgrid-scale turbulence models and an inflow turbulence generator were tested. The discrete phase was simulated using two different Lagrangian solvers. For the validation case of a turbulent flow of a street canyon, the flowfield could be recaptured very well, with errors of around 5% for the non-equilibrium turbulence models (WALE and dynamicKeq) in the main regions. The inflow turbulence generator could create a stable and accurate boundary layer for the mean vertical velocity and vertical profile of the turbulent Reynolds stresses R11. The validation of the Lagrangian solver showed mixed results, with partly good agreements (simulation results within the measurement uncertainty), and partly high deviations of up to 80% for the concentration of particles. The higher deviations were attributed to an insufficient turbulence regime of the used validation case, which was an experimental chamber. For the simulation case of PM dispersion from manure application on a field, the solver could capture the influence of features such as size and density on the dispersion. The investigated solver is especially useful for further investigations into time-dependent processes in the near-source area of PM sources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Fluid Mechanics in Air Quality Management of Agricultural Facilities and Rural Environment)
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19 pages, 2205 KiB  
Article
A Parametric Model for Local Air Exchange Rate of Naturally Ventilated Barns
by E. Moustapha Doumbia, David Janke, Qianying Yi, Alexander Prinz, Thomas Amon, Martin Kriegel and Sabrina Hempel
Agronomy 2021, 11(8), 1585; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11081585 - 10 Aug 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1861
Abstract
With an increasing number of naturally ventilated dairy barns (NVDBs), the emission of ammonia and greenhouse gases into the surrounding environment is expected to increase as well. It is very challenging to accurately determine the amount of gases released from a NVDB on-farm. [...] Read more.
With an increasing number of naturally ventilated dairy barns (NVDBs), the emission of ammonia and greenhouse gases into the surrounding environment is expected to increase as well. It is very challenging to accurately determine the amount of gases released from a NVDB on-farm. Moreover, control options for the micro-climate to increase animal welfare are limited in an NVDB at present. Both issues are due to the complexity of the NVDB micro-environment, which is subject to temporal (such as wind direction and temperature) and spatial (such as openings and animals acting as airflow obstacles) fluctuations. The air exchange rate (AER) is one of the most valuable evaluation entities, since it is directly related to the gas emission rate and animal welfare. In this context, our study determined the general and local AERs of NVDBs of different shapes under diverse airflow conditions. Previous works identified main influencing parameters for the general AER and mathematically linked them together to predict the AER of the barn as a whole. The present research study is a continuation and extension of previous studies about the determination of AER. It provides new insights into the influence of convection flow regimes. In addition, it goes further in precision by determining the local AERs, depending on the position of the considered volume inside the barn. After running several computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, we used the statistical tool of general linear modeling in order to identify quantitative relationships between the AER and the following five influencing parameters, the length/width ratio of the barn, the side opening configuration, the airflow temperature, magnitude and incoming direction. The work succeeded in taking the temperature into account as a further influencing parameter in the model and, thus, for the first time, in analysing the effect of the different types of flow convection in this context. The resulting equations predict the barn AER with an R2 equals 0.98 and the local AER with a mean R2 equals around 0.87. The results go a step further in the precise determination of the AER of NVDB and, therefore, are of fundamental importance for a better and deeper understanding of the interaction between the driving forces of AER in NVDB. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Fluid Mechanics in Air Quality Management of Agricultural Facilities and Rural Environment)
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26 pages, 9752 KiB  
Article
Dynamic Energy Exchange Modelling for a Plastic-Covered Multi-Span Greenhouse Utilizing a Thermal Effluent from Power Plant
by Sang-yeon Lee, In-bok Lee, Seung-no Lee, Uk-hyeon Yeo, Jun-gyu Kim, Rack-woo Kim and Cristina Decano-Valentin
Agronomy 2021, 11(8), 1461; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11081461 - 22 Jul 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2026
Abstract
To utilize the energy in the thermal effluent, many attempts have been made to use the thermal effluent for agricultural facilities such as greenhouses. As the first step, it is important to estimate the energy loads of the greenhouse for deciding a suitable [...] Read more.
To utilize the energy in the thermal effluent, many attempts have been made to use the thermal effluent for agricultural facilities such as greenhouses. As the first step, it is important to estimate the energy loads of the greenhouse for deciding a suitable scale for the heating and cooling. Then, it is available to estimate the energy efficiency of the thermal effluent heat pump system installed in the greenhouse. Therefore, the main objectives of this study were to design and validate an energy model of the experimental greenhouse growing Irwin mangoes and to estimate the annual and maximum energy loads using building energy simulation (BES). Field experiments were conducted in a multi-span plastic-covered greenhouse growing Irwin mangoes to measure the internal environments of the greenhouse and crop characteristics. The energy exchange model of the greenhouse considering crop, cladding, heat pump was developed using BES. The BES model was validated using the data measured at field experiments. The designed model was found to be able to provide satisfactory estimates of the changes of the internal air temperature of the greenhouse (R2 = 0.94 and d = 0.97). The hourly energy loads computed by using the validated model were used to analyse the periodic and maximum energy loads according to the growth stage of the cultivated crops. Finally, the energy costs were compared according to the type of energy source based on the calculated annual energy loads. The average energy cost when using the thermal effluent—heat pump system was found to be 68.21% lower than that when a kerosene boiler was used. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Fluid Mechanics in Air Quality Management of Agricultural Facilities and Rural Environment)
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20 pages, 3152 KiB  
Article
Integrated Building Energy Simulation–Life Cycle Assessment (BES–LCA) Approach for Environmental Assessment of Agricultural Building: A Review and Application to Greenhouse Heating Systems
by Cristina Decano-Valentin, In-Bok Lee, Uk-Hyeon Yeo, Sang-Yeon Lee, Jun-Gyu Kim, Se-Jun Park, Young-Bae Choi, Jeong-Hwa Cho and Hyo-Hyeog Jeong
Agronomy 2021, 11(6), 1230; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11061230 - 17 Jun 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2805
Abstract
A substantial reduction in the environmental impacts related to the construction and operation of agricultural buildings is needed to adapt to the continuing development of agriculture. The life cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodology used to quantify the environmental impact of different processes [...] Read more.
A substantial reduction in the environmental impacts related to the construction and operation of agricultural buildings is needed to adapt to the continuing development of agriculture. The life cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodology used to quantify the environmental impact of different processes involved in the production and therefore has been increasingly applied to assess the environmental burden. However, most LCA-related research studies have focused on the overall environmental impact of the entire system without considering the energy load of the agricultural buildings. By integrating the LCA tool with other design tools such as the building energy simulation (BES), the identification of environmental hotspots and the mitigation options become possible during the design process. Thus, the objective of the paper was to identify the current integration approaches used to combine BES and LCA results to assess the environmental impact of different heating systems such as absorption heat pump (AHP) using energy from thermal effluent, electricity-powered heat pump and kerosene-powered boilers used in a conventional multi-span Korean greenhouse. The assessment result revealed that the environmental impact caused using a kerosene-powered boiler is largest in terms of the acidification potential (AP), global warming potential (GWP) and Eutrophication Potential (EP) of 1.15 × 100 kg SO2-eq, 1.13 × 102 kg CO2-eq and 1.62 × 10−1 kg PO4-eq, respectively. Detailed analysis of the result showed that the main contributor for greenhouse gas emission was caused by the type, amount and source of energy used to heat the greenhouse, which contributed to a maximum of 86.59% for case 1, 96.69% for case 2 and a maximum of 96.47% for case 3, depending on the type of greenhouse gas being considered. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Fluid Mechanics in Air Quality Management of Agricultural Facilities and Rural Environment)
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27 pages, 8674 KiB  
Article
Impact Analysis of Environmental Conditions on Odour Dispersion Emitted from Pig House with Complex Terrain Using CFD
by Uk-Hyeon Yeo, Cristina Decano-Valentin, Taehwan Ha, In-Bok Lee, Rack-Woo Kim, Sang-Yeon Lee and Jun-Gyu Kim
Agronomy 2020, 10(11), 1828; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10111828 - 20 Nov 2020
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3931
Abstract
With the rise in livestock production, the odour concentration emitted from livestock facilities has significantly increased. For this reason, odour complaints have become a major issue. The dispersion of the odour into the atmosphere is affected by various factors (wind speed, wind direction, [...] Read more.
With the rise in livestock production, the odour concentration emitted from livestock facilities has significantly increased. For this reason, odour complaints have become a major issue. The dispersion of the odour into the atmosphere is affected by various factors (wind speed, wind direction, atmospheric stability, terrain condition, ventilation type, and so on). Thus, a thorough analysis on the factor influencing odour dispersion is necessary to establish regulations and policies for odour management. Therefore, this research aimed to evaluate odour dispersion generated from a pig house with complex terrain using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and to statistically determine the key factor for odour dispersion. By comparing CFD-computed results with field-measured data, an appropriate grid size, time step, and turbulence model of the CFD model were determined. Considering various factors, case studies were performed using the validated CFD model. The CFD-computed results showed that odour dispersion distance at the level of 1 OU m−3 ranged from 129.7 to 1488.1 m. The prediction of odour dispersion distance varies with the change of factor being analysed. Finally, the statistical analysis showed that the most influential factor that affected odour dispersion distance was the wind speed with a t-value: −9.057. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Fluid Mechanics in Air Quality Management of Agricultural Facilities and Rural Environment)
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Review

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20 pages, 762 KiB  
Review
Fluid Dynamic Approaches for Prediction of Spray Drift from Ground Pesticide Applications: A Review
by Se-woon Hong, Jinseon Park, Hanna Jeong, Seyeon Lee, Lakyeong Choi, Lingying Zhao and Heping Zhu
Agronomy 2021, 11(6), 1182; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11061182 - 10 Jun 2021
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 3681
Abstract
Spray drifts have been studied by mathematical models and computer simulations as an essential complement to lab and field tests, among which are fluid dynamic approaches that help to understand the transport of spray droplets in a turbulent atmosphere and their potential impacts [...] Read more.
Spray drifts have been studied by mathematical models and computer simulations as an essential complement to lab and field tests, among which are fluid dynamic approaches that help to understand the transport of spray droplets in a turbulent atmosphere and their potential impacts to the environment. From earlier fluid mechanical models to highly computational models, scientific advancement has led to a more realistic prediction of spray drift, but the current literature lacks reviews showing the trends and limitations of the existing approaches. This paper is to review the literature on fluid-mechanical-based modelling of spray drift resulting from ground spray applications. Consequently, it provides comprehensive understanding of the transition and development of fluid dynamic approaches and the future directions in this research field. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Fluid Mechanics in Air Quality Management of Agricultural Facilities and Rural Environment)
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