Molecular Diversity Preservation International and Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing
Doi
Abstract
Modeling and simulation of internal variables such as temperature and relative humidity
are relevant for designing future climate control systems. In this paper, a mathematical model is
proposed to predict the internal variables temperature and relative humidity (RH) of a growth chamber
(GCH). Both variables are incorporated in a set of first-order differential equations, considering an
energy-mass balance. The results of the model are compared and assessed in terms of the coefficients
of determination (R2) and the root mean squared error (RMSE). The R2 and RMSE computed were
R2 = 0.96, R2 = 0.94, RMSE = 0.98 C, and RMSE = 1.08 C, respectively, for the temperature during two
consecutive weeks; and R2 = 0.83, R2 = 0.81, RMSE = 5.45%RH, and RMSE = 5.48%RH, respectively,
for the relative humidity during the same period. Thanks to the passive systems used to control
internal conditions, the growth chamber gives average differences between inside and outside of
+0.34 C for temperature, and +15.7%RH for humidity without any climate control system. Operating,
the GCH proposed in this paper produces 3.5 kg of wet hydroponic green forage (HGF) for each
kilogram of seed (corn or barley) harvested on average