The effect of raised benches containing crops on the indoor environment in greenhouses

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of peninsular arranged perforated benches containing plants on the indoor environment of a naturally ventilated greenhouse. The results are compared to a greenhouse containing peninsular arranged solid benches with no plants. The investigation will be conducted numerically using three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models. The overall temperature and velocity distribution were investigated at different sections of the greenhouse. The temperature and velocity distributions at plant level were of particular interest. Results indicated that the greenhouse containing the perforated benches were in general cooler, but also exhibited higher velocities throughout. The velocities observed were higher than those recommended by ASHRAE [1]. It was concluded that care should be taken when placing plants on the perforated benches especially in the regions adjacent to the walls, as this can lead to non-uniform crop production.