Diagnosis and validation by computational fluid dynamics of poultry house with negative pressure ventilation

ABSTRACT Negative pressure ventilation in poultry houses has been used to enable the correction of their internal microclimates, and studies point to the heterogeneous distribution of air along the aviaries and the inadequacy of the environmental variables to the recommended ranges for thermal comfort of adult birds, especially in the hottest hours of the day. This study aimed to diagnose the facilities of a poultry house in the state of Paraíba, Brazil, regarding the distribution of environmental variables and thermal comfort; develop a computational model and validate it for Computational Fluid Dynamic - CFD simulations. Air temperature (Tair), air relative humidity (RH) and air velocity (Vair) data allowed characterizing the internal environment by comparison with the recommended ranges for each variable and by the temperature-humidity-velocity index (THVI). The poultry house does not provide comfort for the housed adult birds, between 12 and 14 h, with THVI indicating alert and Tair, RH and Vair values outside the recommended ranges; the CFD model for the poultry house was validated with Tair averages collected in the field of 27.75 ± 1.35 ºC and simulated of 27.85 ± 0.55 ºC, mean values of RH collected of 83 ± 12% and simulated of 78 ± 3%, and means of Vair collected of 2.35 ± 1.35 m s-1 and simulated of 2.50 ± 1.50 m s-1