• Energy Research

The main parameters of the microclimate of pig farms are regulated by the norms of technological design. Naturally, such micro-climate parameters at real energy prices require high costs, but these are the most favourable conditions for the life of suckling piglets. According to the presented analysis, the problem of research is the need to provide a micro-climate in the room for comfortable keeping of pigs, which is currently achieved through high energy. The purpose of the development is to increase the efficiency of the microclimate of pig farms by using a mechatronic control system, rational use of utilized air energy and soil thermal potential with reduced energy costs of the ventilation system. The problem is solved by creating such a mechatronic system to ensure the microclimate of pig farms, which can: switch the direction of airflow to ensure the operation of the system in winter and summer; to control the movement of air, which must be disposed of according to the parameters of its quality; to provide a local microclimate in each place where animals are kept; rational use of soil thermal energy as a source of alternative energy; to carry out automatic pumping of the water necessary for humidification of air, and its utilization. The article presents the results of research of parameters of the developed mechatronic system of providing microclimate of pig premises, which were carried out in three stages: research of heat exchanger of side-evaporating type; substantiation of the ventilation system of polluted air intake; substantiation of the ventilation system for injecting clean air taking into account it's geothermal heating/cooling. The advantage of the proposed mechatronic system of the microclimate of pig farms is that it allows increasing the efficiency of microclimate by rational use of energy of utilized air (due to the use of side-evaporator type heat exchanger based on Maisotsenko cycle) and soil heat potential (geothermal energy) at low operating costs of the ventilation system through the additional provision of mechatronic elements. The presented results of numerical simulation of the indirect evaporative heat exchanger allow us to state that the cooling effect obtained in indirect evaporative channels can be quite high in comparison with traditional air conditioning patterns. The presented heat exchanger based on the Maisotsenko cycle (M-cycle) of considered heat carrier flow scheme is characterized by its high cost-effectiveness, low specific cost, small operational costs and structural simplicity, which is confirmed in the works. The models obtained in the Star CCM +software package can be used for optimization analysis of air-cooling with variations in the Reynolds number, humidity, channel length and geometric dimensions of channels. Because of analytical investigations of the contaminated air intake ventilation system, the method was developed and on its basis – the algorithm was implemented for the determination of geometrical arrangement of holes in the air duct of the mechatronic system for pigsty microclimate maintenance.