Re-Design of Ventilation System of a Newly-Converted Grouped Sow Housing Facility Using Computer Simulation
In response to increasing public demand for improved animal welfare in pig production, the industry is currently shifting from housing pregnant sows in traditional stalls to the more welfare-friendly group housing system.In addition, in the recently-revised Canadian code of practice, more floor space is allocated per sow than the current allocation in traditional stall systems, thus converting a sow barn facility to group housing system means reduced total number of animals can be housed in the same building footprint.This conversion leads to considerable changes in the environmental conditions of the room and thus requires reconsideration of the existing ventilation system.This study aimed to re-design and evaluate the mechanical ventilation system of a newly-converted group sow housing facility using computer simulation techniques.A computer simulation package which utilizes computational fluid dynamics (CFD) principles to numerically simulate fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, and mechanical movement, was employed.Various ventilation design configurations which included different sizes and locations of exhaust fans, and design and location of air inlets, were assessed based on thermal ventilation effectiveness.Results showed that the pre-conversion room with stall system and the converted group housing room with unmodified ventilation design were not very effective in removing heat from the animal occupied zone.Among all the design configurations investigated, tunnel ventilation system with the exhaust fans on one side and inlets on the opposite side had the highest heat removal effectiveness for both summer and winter conditions, thus this configuration was selected for actual in-barn evaluation.
Swine barn conversion ventilation computational fluid dynamics group housing
Bernardo Predicala Alvin Alvarado
Prairie Swine Centre Inc., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7H 5N9, Canada
国际会议
The 2015 International Symposium on Animal Environment and Welfare(动物环境和福利国际研讨会)
重庆
英文
133-140
2015-10-23（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）