SOFTWARE FOR SIZING PAD-FAN EVAPORATIVE COOLING SYSTEMS OF GREENHOUSES

Resumen

The calculations for sizing pad-fan evaporative cooling systems depend on the psychrometric properties of the air inside and outside of the greenhouse, appearing as a constant need for professionals in the agricultural sector. A software capable of performing these calculations is important to speed up this procedure. In this study a free software was developed to estimate the maximum efficiency of the porous panel, the ventilation rate of the exhaust fan and the climatic conditions of pad-fan evaporative cooling systems in greenhouses. The software, called Theoretical Evaporative (TE), was written in Java programming language, using the NetBeans platform. All equations and algorithms used in this development are presented, and were based on the mechanical ventilation and cooling principles. The software was tested by means of comparisons with real system sizing calculations performed manually and in electronic spreadsheet. The TE was efficient in sizing different evaporative cooling systems for greenhouses and can be used for performing consultations in the academic and commercial areas of agricultural sciences, being also advantageous for didactic purposes. Although this software is applied to greenhouse conditions, the methodology presented can be adapted for other environments, such as poultry, cattle and swine facilities.