Thermal and ammonia concentration gradients in a rabbit barn with two ventilation system designs

Abstract

Rabbit barns are of economic importance in central Mexico, where rabbit breeders use rustic buildings for production. In such barns, climate conditioning is mostly based on natural ventilation (NV) where the lack of a well-designed NV system may be a limiting factor. In this study, computational fluid dynamics was used to analyse the performance of the NV system in a 24 x 4 x 4.8 m typical Central Mexico rabbit barn with a density of 20 rabbits m-2 of cage. The barn included both side vents at 1.2 m in height from the ground. Results indicated exchange rates of 0.052 and 2.9 x 10-4 m3 m-2 s-1 when the wind direction was simulated as orthogonal and parallel to the side vents, respectively, suggesting the orthogonal direction favoured the exchange rate. However, such conditions produced an accumulation of ammonia underneath the rabbit cages. Thus, a design modification including a lower inlet vent was analyzed. Such modification substantially decreased the concentration gradients of temperature and ammonia.