Numerical Study of the Natural Airflow in Greenhouses using a Two-dimensional Lattice Model

The objective of this work is to describe the natural airflow in greenhouses using a two-dimensional lattice Bathnagar, Groos and Krook (BGK) model, a well-known modified version of the lattice Boltzmann model. This is a complex phenomenon that has a great impact on the growing conditions of protected crops. The capability of the proposed lattice BGK model has been qualitatively checked for mono and multi-span tunnel and asymmetric triangular roof greenhouses with different rolling ventilator configurations. In addition to the previous analysis, a quantitative comparison was done simulating the flow patterns obtained by other researchers with a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for a tropical crop protection structure. The theoretical results show an acceptable agreement with the experimental data, proving the lattice BGK model as a valid tool for describing the natural airflows in greenhouses.