CFD analysis as a tool to improve air motion knowledge in dairy houses

The natural ventilation taking place into a dairy house representative of the recent trends in livestock buildings of South-Eastern Sicily has been analyzed using three-dimensional CFD. The objective of the study is to improve the knowledge on air motion and temperature distribution inside these kind of buildings to enable a better management and design of openings and to perform the best choice of building orientation. As for the best orientation, further analyses were carried out adding walls on the open side in the lengthwise direction, varying the slope of the roof and closing the roof opening. In detail, adding side walls causes a decrease of ventilation almost in the whole building, whereas the temperature increase is limited to the corner opposite to the air inlets. Closing the roof opening or varying the slope of the roof does not produce a considerable difference in ventilation at animal height in this building typology.The results can be used to perform a better environmental control and for decision support both in building design and in animal management.