• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.151-156
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• 2002

Root zone cooling, such as soil or nutrient solution cooling, is less expensive than air cooling in the whole greenhouse and is effective in promoting root activity, improving water absorption rate, decreasing plant temperature, and reducing high temperature stress. The heat transfer of a soil cooling system in a plastic greenhouse was analyzed to estimate cooling loads. The thermal conductivity of soil, calculated by measured heat fluxes in the soil, showed the positive correlation with the soil water content. It ranged from 0.83 to 0.96 W.m$^{[-10]}$ .$^{\circ}C$$^{[-10]}$ at 19 to 36％ of soil water contents. As the indoor solar radiation increased, the temperature difference between soil surface and indoor air linearly increased. At 300 to 800 W.m$^{-2}$ of indoor solar radiations, the soil surface temperature rose from 3.5 to 7.$0^{\circ}C$ in bare ground and 1.0 to 2.5$^{\circ}C$ under the canopy. Cooling loads in the root zone soil were estimated with solar radiation, soil water content, and temperature difference between air and soil. At 300 to 600 W.m$^{-2}$ of indoor solar radiations and 20 to 40％ of soil water contents,46 to 59 W.m$^{-2}$ of soil cooling loads are required to maintain the temperature difference of 1$0^{\circ}C$ between indoor air and root zone soil.