Effects of the air ducts layout in the back wall on the heat transfer and storage characteristics of active heat storage back wall of solar greenhouse

Authors

  • Yachen Sun College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
  • Cuinan Wu Institute of Agricultural Facilities and Equipment, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Science, Key Laboratory of Protected Agriculture Engineering in the Middle and Lower Reaches of Yangtze River, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Nanjing 210014, China
  • Chenmeng Zhu Fudan Univeristy, Shanghai 200433, China
  • Guoliang Li College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
  • Yanfei Cao Key Laboratory of Protected Horticultural Engineering in Northwest, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Department of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China
  • Zhirong Zou Key Laboratory of Protected Horticultural Engineering in Northwest, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Department of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China
  • Encai Bao Institute of Agricultural Facilities and Equipment, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Science, Key Laboratory of Protected Agriculture Engineering in the Middle and Lower Reaches of Yangtze River, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Nanjing 210014, China

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25165/ijabe.v18i4.7785

Keywords:

active heat storage, heat transfer, air duct layout, solar greenhouse, CFD

Abstract

Solar greenhouses have been widely developed in China. Active heat storage walls using air ducts arranged in the walls can improve the walls' thermal performance and indoor temperatures of solar greenhouses. In the present work, three kinds of air duct layouts, namely straight-up-and-down duct (Z), fork-shaped top-in- bottom-out distribution duct (DF), and “±”shaped top-in-side-out distribution duct (CF) are designed. The effect of the three air duct layouts on the heat transfer and storage characteristics of the back wall is studied using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. Results show that after the same time period, the transferred heat amount in the back wall with duct DF is the largest, while that with duct CF is slightly greater than that with duct Z. The temperature of the back walls with air ducts is higher than that without air ducts. The air duct DF is the optimal among the three kinds of air duct layouts. The greenhouse with the duct DF in the back wall shows the most obviously increased indoor average temperature, the highest temperature at night, and the most uniform temperature. Keywords: active heat storage, heat transfer, air duct layout, solar greenhouse, CFD DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20251804.7785 Citation: Sun Y C, Wu C N, Zhu C M, Li G L, Cao Y F, Zou Z R, et al. Effects of the air ducts layout in the back wall on the heat transfer and storage characteristics of active heat storage back wall of solar greenhouse. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2025; 18(4): 63–70.

References

Wu G, Zhang Y, Fang H, Yang Q C. Study on application status of solar thermal technology in solar greenhouse of China. Acta Horticulturae, 2020; 1296: 9–16.

Li M, Wang P Z, Song W T. Feasibility of employing a heat insulation wall as the north wall of a Chinese solar greenhouse in a severely cold area of China. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, 2019; 35(6): 903–910.

Liu X G, Li Y M, Liu A H, Yue X, Li T L. Effect of north wall materials on the thermal environment in Chinese solar greenhouse (Part A: experimental researches). Open Physics, 2019; 17(1): 752–767.

Ren J, Zhao Z, Zhang J, Wang J, Guo S R, Sun J. Study on the hygrothermal properties of a Chinese solar greenhouse with a straw block north wall. Energy and Buildings, 2019; 193: 127–138.

Zhang G P, Shi Y L, Liu H, Fei Z Y, Liu X, Wei M, et al. Heat transfer performance of an assembled multilayer wall in a Chinese solar greenhouse considering humidity. Journal of Energy Storage, 2021; 33(1): 102046.

Liu X G, Li H, Li Y M, Yue X, Tian S B, Li T L. Effect of internal surface structure of the north wall on Chinese solar greenhouse thermal microclimate based on computational fluid dynamics. PLoS One, PLoS One, 2020; 15(4): e0231316.

Bezari S, Bekkouche S, Benchatti A. Investigation and improvement for a solar greenhouse using sensible heat storage material. FME Transactions, 2021; 49(1): 154–162.

Han F T, Chen C, Hu Q L, He Y P, Wei S, Li C Y. Modeling method of an active–passive ventilation wall with latent heat storage for evaluating its thermal properties in the solar greenhouse. Energy and Buildings, 2021; 238: 110840.

Zhao S M, Zhuang Y F, Zheng K X, Ma C W, Cheng J Y, Ma C, Chen X W, Zhang T Z. Thermal performance experiment on air convection heat storage wall with cavity in Chinese solar greenhouse. Transactions of the CSAE, 2018; 34(4): 223–231. (in Chinese)

Bo Z, Yi Z, Yang Q, Hui F, Wei L, Sheng Z. Dehumidification in a Chinese solar greenhouse using dry outdoor air heated by an active heat storagerelease system. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, 2016; 32(4): 447–456.

Kuroyanagi T. Current usage of air circulators in greenhouses in Japan. Jarq-japan Agricultural Research Quarterly, 2016; 50(1): 7–12.

Zhang Y, Gao W B, Zou Z R. Performance experiment and CFD simulation of heat exchange in solar greenhouse with active thermal storage back wall. Transactions of the CSAE, 2015; 31(5): 203–211. (in Chinese)

Bao E C, Zou Z Y, Zhang Y. CFD simulation of heat transfer in back-wall of active thermal-storage solar greenhouse with different airflow directions. Transactions of the CSAE, 2018; 34(22): 169–177. (in Chinese)

Sun Y C, Bao E C, Zhu C M, Yan L L, Cao Y F, Zhang X H, Li J M, Jing H W, Zou Z R. Effects of window opening style on inside environment of solar greenhouse based on CFD simulation. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2020; 13(6): 53–59.

He F, Si C Q, Ding X M, Gao Z J, Gong B B, Qi F, et al. Optimization of Chinese solar greenhouse building parameters based on CFD simulation and entropy weight method. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2023; 16(6): 48–55.

Nguyen Q, Hashemi B M, Amir P, Omid M, Arash K. Discrete ordinates thermal radiation with mixed convection to involve nanoparticles absorption, scattering and dispersion along radiation beams through the nanofluid. Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, 2021; 143(3): 2801–2824.

Lu H, Zhang L Z. Particle deposition characteristics and efficiency in duct air flow over a backward-facing step: analysis of influencing factors. Sustainability, 2019; 11(3): 751–768.

Omer A Alawi, Abdelrazek A H, Aldlemy M S, Ahmed W, Hussein O A, Ghafel S T, et al. Heat transfer and hydrodynamic properties using different metal-oxide nanostructures in horizontal concentric annular tube: an optimization study. Nanomaterials, 2021; 11(8): 1979.

Sun Y C, Wang H T, Zhu C M, Lyu H Y, Zhang X H, Cao Y F, et al. Application performances of two greenhouses with new types of backwall in Yangling, China. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2022; 15(3): 62–71.

Cao Y F, Xu H J, Shi M, Zhang X Y, Zhang Y H, Zou Z R. Analysis of the thermal performance of the novel assembled Chinese solar greenhouse with a modular soil wall in winter of Yinchuan, China. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2022; 15(5): 70–77.

Sobota T. Fourier’s law of heat conduction. Springer Netherlands, 2014.

Du B X, Xu G Y, Xue D W, Wang J B. Fractional thermal wave bio-heat equation based analysis for living biological tissue with non-Fourier Neumann boundary condition in laser pulse heating. Optik, 2021; 247: 167811.

Li H, Ji D, Hu X, Xie T, Song W T, Tian S B. Comprehensive evaluation of combining CFD simulation and entropy weight to predict natural ventilation strategy in a sliding cover solar greenhouse. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2021; 14(6): 213–221.

Gao Z J, Li W Y, Li W, Ding X M. Experimental research on the microclimate in the naturally ventilated multi-span greenhouse. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2024; 17(3): 68–74.

Zhang G X, Fu Z T, Yang M S, Liu X X, Dong Y H, Li X X. Nonlinear simulation for coupling modeling of air humidity and vent opening in Chinese solar greenhouse based on CFD. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 2019; 162: 337–347.

He X L, Wang J, Guo S R, Zhang J, Wei B, Sun J, et al. Ventilation optimization of solar greenhouse with removable back walls based on CFD. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 2018; 149: 16–25.

Zhang X, Wang H L, Zou Z R, Wang S J. CFD and weighted entropy based simulation and optimisation of Chinese solar greenhouse temperature distribution. Biosystem Engineering, 2016; 142: 12–26.

Tong G H, Christopher D M, Li B M. Numerical modelling of temperature variations in a Chinese solar greenhouse. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 2009; 68: 129–139.

Li Y M, Liu X G, Qi F S, Wang L, Li T L. Numerical investigation of the north wall passive thermal performance for Chinese solar greenhouse. Thermal Science, 2020; 24(6A): 3465–3476.

Downloads

Published

2025-08-21

How to Cite

Sun, Y., Wu, C., Zhu, C., Li, G., Cao, Y., Zou, Z., & Bao, E. (2025). Effects of the air ducts layout in the back wall on the heat transfer and storage characteristics of active heat storage back wall of solar greenhouse. International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 18(4), 63–70. https://doi.org/10.25165/ijabe.v18i4.7785

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 4 (2025): IJABE

Section

Animal, Plant and Facility Systems

License

IJABE is an international peer reviewed open access journal, adopting Creative Commons Copyright Notices as follows.


Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:


  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).