• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.32-39
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• 2016

The Gradient Biome is a unique and large greenhouse(length 200 m, width 50 m, height:40 m) in which the elements of the weather, such as temperature and humidity, are controlled and reproduced in such a way as to create a continuous gradient from the tropical to frigid zones along specified longitudinal or transvers lines on the earth. One of the main purposes of the Gradient Biome is to observe the possible responses of the ecosystems (mainly plants), which are to be corresponding to each test climate and be introduced in the Biome, to the expected global warming. As one of the expected responses is the shift of the ecosystem(s) toward the region of suitable environment, there should be no artificial obstacles, which can prevent the shift, inside the facility. However, it is important but not so easy to find the ways of how the temperature and humidity in the Biome could be reproduced since the environmental variables tends to be homogeneous. In this paper, numerical simulations were carried out to find the effective control methods for air temperature and humidity inside the real scale Biome. One of the contributed solvers of OpenFOAM, which is an open source physics simulation code, was modified and used for the simulations.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.43-48
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• 2013

The feasibility of a unique greenhouse, named as Gradient Biome, is now being examined extensively in the University of Tokyo. It is a large chamber (length:200m, width:50m, height:40m) in which the weather, such as temperature and humidity, of the tropical zone through to that of the frigid zone on the earth is reproduced with continuous gradient. In the Gradient Biome, ecosystems (mainly plants) corresponding to each weather are introduced and the possible responses of this ecosystems to the expected global warming are to be observed. Since one of the expected responses is the shift of the ecosystem(s) toward the region of suitable environment, there should be no artificial obstacles, which can prevent the shift, inside the Biome. This requirement is not so easy to be satisfied since the environment tends to be homogeneous. This paper presents the results of the numerical studies conducted to find the ways of how the temperature and humidity in the Gradient Biome could be reproduced. One of the contributed solvers of OpenFOAM, which is an open source physics simulation code, was modified and used for the numerical simulations.