Il-Hwan Seo

A wind tunnel study on aerodynamic porosity and windbreak drag

Natural windbreaks such as trees are very efficient barriers to high velocity winds. The windbreaks exert drag force causing a net loss of momentum and thus disturb the characteristics of flow. The main factors which can affect the efficiency of the windbreaks are tree height, width, tree arrangement, porosity, etc. However, tree porosity which is strongly related to the windbreak drag is very difficult to establish. In this study, the results of a wind tunnel test were introduced to find the aerodynamic porosity and resistance factor of a tree windbreak. Black pine tree (Pinus thunbergii), a typical tree windbreak in Korea was chosen as the experimental tree. With the main factors of wind velocity, static pressure and density of the tree, the aerodynamic porosity as well as the resistance factor of the tree was found. The average porosity at varied tree density were found to be 0.91, 0.69 and 0.42 for one, two and three trees, respectively. The resistance factors which can be equaled to the drag coefficient were 0.55, 0.82 and 1.08 for one, two and three trees, respectively. The determined aerodynamic porosity and windbreak drag will be used later as input data in computer simulation studies such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Moreover, the experimental procedure as well as the use of real trees in the wind tunnel experiment of finding the aerodynamic porosity and windbreak drag of various tree windbreaks was established through this study.

Monitoring of dust emission at a reclaimed land and its 3-D aerodynamic modeling

While studies have been actively conducted to build a prediction system of dust diffusion at a large-scaled reclaimed land the objective of this study is to develop an aerodynamic numerical model to collect fundamental data for the studies. Saemangeum area, the experimental place of this study, is located at the western costal area, and its total area reach to 28,300ha. CFD model were developed to overcome the difficulties of field experiment depending on very limited measuring points as well as dealing with the spacious area. The 3-D CFD model is designed with dust generation computed by the local GIS data is used to design the topography of Saemangeum area. All the seasonally collected data were used as the CFD input data as well as to improve the accuracy of the developed CFD model. The experimental results indicated that dust generated at Saemangeum is diffused very extensively and strongly depended on weather condition. Moreover, the dust contain salty contents which can be very harmful to plant production while the dust itself causes respiratory and eye diseases for human and animals. Through this study, it is recognized that the aerodynamic simulation can be very effective tool to build the prediction and alarm system of dust diffusion.

Monitoring of the Fugitive and Suspended Dust Dispersion at the Reclaimed Land and Neighboring Farms: Monitoring in Gim-je

A study on fugitive dust dispersion was conducted at Saemanguem reclaimed area located at the west coastal area of Jeon-buk Province Total reclaimed area is 40,100ha developed by building a 33km long sea dike through Gunsan, Gimje, and Buan. (Land: 28,300ha, Fresh Water Lake: 11,800ha) After this area was completely reclaimed in 2006, there has been high possibility of dust generation and dispersion to the neighboring area. The dust generated at the reclaimed land was composed mainly of minerals with high salinity, and it could make harmful effect on crop production as well on to human`s health such as eye irritation and respiratory disease. Especially, when those aerosol particles are reached on the leaves of farm crops, the photosynthesis and respiration of the plants can be under restraint resulting in the decrease of agricultural productivity of the nearby farm areas. Furthermore, highly concentrated salty particles can directly damage the leaf cells. In this study, field experiment has been conducted to regularly measure the locally suspended dust particles and analyze how they were dispersed to the neighboring areas. The collected dust particles were analyzed to examine theirs sizes, concentrations, and components. The SPSS statistical program was also used to separate the dust concentration generated by the reclaimed land from the total dust concentration measured at the measuring locations.

Evaluation and CFD Modelling of Flow behind Livestock Ventilation Fan for Small-Scale Wind Power Generation

The objectives of this paper were to evaluate the wind flow behind the livestock ventilation fan for small-scale wind power generation and to make flow profiles of imaginary ventilation fan for future simulation works. The field experiments using typical 50-inch fan indicated that the wind flow behind the ventilation fan had a good possibility of power generation with its high and steady wind speeds up to a distance of 2 m. The expected electricity yield was almost 101~369 W with a small (0.8 m radius) wind turbine. The decline of ventilation fan performance caused by the obstacle was also not significant with about 4 % from a distance of 2 m. The flow profiles for the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was created by combining the direction vectors analyzed from tuft visualization test and the flow predicted by the rotating fan modeling. The flow profiles are expected to provide an efficient saving of computational time and cost to design a better wind turbine system in future works.

Development of a CFD Model to Study Ventilation Efficiency of Mechanically Ventilated Pig House

When livestock facilities in Korea have been changed larger and denser, rearing conditions have been getting worse and the productivity of animal production have been decreased. Especially in the cold season, the minimized ventilation has generally been operated to save energy cost in Korea resulting in very poor environmental condition and high mortality. While the stability, suitability, and uniformity of the rearing condition are the most important for high productivity, the ventilation configuration is the most important to improve the rearing condition seasonally. But, it is so difficult to analyze the internal air flow and the environmental factors by conducting only field experiment because the weather condition is very unpredictable and unstable as well as the structural specification can not be easily changed by the researchers considering cost and labor. Accordingly, an aerodynamic computer simulation was adopted to this study to overcome the weakness of conducting field experiment and study the aerodynamic itself. It has been supposed that the airflow is the main mechanism of heat, mass, and momentum transfers. To make the simulation model accurately and actually, simplified pig models were also developed. The accuracy of the CFD simulation model was enhanced by 4.4 % of errors compared with the data collected from field experiments. In this paper, using the verified CFD model, the CFD computed internal rearing condition of the mechanically ventilated pig house were analyzed quantitatively as well as qualitatively. Later, this developed model will be computed time-dependently to effectively analyze the seasonal ventilation efficiency more practically and extensively with tracer gas decay theory.

Prediction of Greenhouse Energy Loads using Building Energy Simulation (BES)

Reliable estimation of energy load inside the greenhouse and the selection of cooling and heating facilities are very important preceding factors to save energy as well as initial and maintenance costs of operating a greenhouse. Recently, building energy simulation (BES) technique to simulate a model similar to the actual conditions through a variety of dynamic simulation methods, and predict and analyze the flow of energy is being actively introduced and developed. As a fundamental research to apply the BES technique which is mainly used for analysis of general buildings, to greenhouse, this research designed four types of naturally-ventilated greenhouses using one of commercial programs, TRNSYS, and then compared and analyzed their energy load properties, by applying meteorological data collected from six regions in Korea. When comparing the greenhouse load of each region depending on latitude and topographical characteristics through simulation, Chuncheon had nearly 9~49 % higher heating load per year than other regions, but its annual cooling load was the reverse to it. Except for Jeju, 1-2W type greenhouses in five regions showed about 17 % higher heating load than a widespan type greenhouse, and 1-2W type greenhouses in Chuncheon, Suwon, Cheongju, Daegu, Cheonju and Jeju had 23 %, 20 %, 17 %, 16 %, 18 % and 20 % higher cooling load respectively than a wide span-type one. Glasshouse and vinyl greenhouse showed 8~11 % and 10~12 % differences respectively in heating load, while 2~10 % and 7~10 % differences in cooling load respectively.

Analysis of Jet-drop Distance from the Multi Opening Slots of Forced-ventilation Broiler House

In the winter season, when the ventilation system is operating, the fresh cold air from the slot-type openings of broiler house which directly reached the animal zone can cause various problems such as thermal stress, decreasing of feed and water consumption, occurrence of respiratory disease, and etc. Therefore it is very important to control the trajectory of aero-flow from the slot openings to induce an efficient thermal heat change. Jet-drop distance model was proposed to predict and control the jet-trajectory. However their study was restricted due to the small scaled model and difficulties of measuring the Jet-drop distance. In this study, CFD was applied to analyze qualitatively and quantitatively the jet-drop distance in a real broiler house. The various variables were considered such as installed slot-angle, designed ventilation rate, and the outdoor ambient temperature. From the present study, two linear-regression models using the Jet-drop factor and corrected Archimedes number, and their R-squared values 0.744 and 0.736, respectively, were used. From this study, the applicability of CFD on the analysis of Jet-drop distance model was confirmed.

Analysis on the Optimum Location of an Wet Air Cleaner in a Livestock House using CFD technology

ABSTRACT In South Korea, as the living standard has been getting higher, meat consumption is steadily increasing. To meet the countrys demand, livestock houses become larger and wider with increased raising density. In larger livestock houses, pollutants such as flake of pig skin, excrement, odor, various dusts and noxious gas like ammonia are excessively accumulated inside the facility. These will cause weak immunity for the pigs, diminution of productivity and degeneration of working condition. These problems can be solved through the ventilation performance of the facility. In the winter time, ventilation must be controlled to minimum to maintain a suitable thermal condition. However, this affects the other internal environmental condition because of the minimum ventilation. The installation of “wet air cleaner” especially in the winter time can be an alternative solution. For efficient application of this machine, there is a need to understand the existing ventilation condition and analyze the interaction of existing ventilation system with the wet air cleaner considering its appropriate location. In this study, the existing ventilation system as well as the internal environmental condition negatively inside the facility with the wet air cleaner has been studied using CFD technology. The CFD simulation model was validated from the study conducted by Seo et al. (2008). Results show that the elimination rate of ammonia was 39.4 % and stability could be improved to 35.1 % (Comparing case 5 to 1 where wet air cleaner machine was not used). It can therefore be concluded that case 5 shows the optimum location of a wet air cleaner in the livestock house.

Analysis of the Disease Spread in a Livestock Building Using Tracer Gas Experiment

Recently, the livestock industry in Korea was heavily affected by the outbreak of official livestock diseases such as foot and mouse disease, high pathogenic avian influenza, swine influenza, and so on. It has been established that these diseases are being spread through direct contact, droplet and airborne transmission. Among these transmissions, airborne transmission is very complex in conducting field investigation due to the invisibility of the pathogens and unstable weather conditions. In this study, the airborne transmission was thoroughly investigated inside a pig house by conducting tracer gas () experiment because experiment with real pathogen is limited and dangerous. This is possible as it can be assumed that the flow is similar pattern very fine particles and gas. In the experiment, the ventilation structure as well as the location of gas emission were varied. The detection sensors were installed at 0.5 and 1.3 m height from the floor surface. The tracer gas level was measured every second. Results revealed that the direction of spread can be determined by the response time. Response time refers to the time to reach 150 ppm from the gas emission source at each measuring points. The location of the main flow as well as the gas emission was also found to be very important factor causing the spread.

Quantitative evaluation of bubble-column photo-bioreactors for bio-diesel production from microalgae using computational fluid dynamics

Renewable energy has been interested as a countermeasure for the fossil energy depletion and carbon dioxide reduction. Bio-diesel is one of the most desirable renewable energy because it can be an alternate diesel to petroleum. However, the bio-diesel from soybean or corn, for example, can be confronted with food crisis. Microalgae have recently been researched as a new bio-diesel source which contains higher growth rate than other plants. Microalgae residue also could be used for value-added products such as cosmetics, health functional food or pharmacy. Because pond production system has limitations in unstable weather conditions and insufficient land availability especially in Korea, photo-bioreactors is essential for their cultivation.