• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2012

Purpose: Utilizing air thermal energy during over-heated time in the greenhouse is a necessary component to save greenhouse heating costs for nighttime. However, there is no practical way to implement the related principles. Methods: In this study, a heating and cooling system which utilizes the surplus air thermal energy in a greenhouse was developed. Available air thermal energy and heating load for this experimental glasshouse were estimated based on temperature conditions of the plant growth and weather data. Results: Estimated values were 400 MJ/day for maximum surplus air thermal energy and 340 MJ/day for maximum heating energy which were target values of the design as well. The system consists of a heat pump, fan-coil units and heat storage tanks which are divided into low and high temperature tanks. Moreover, a new control logic was developed for surplus air thermal energy utilization. Conclusions: This paper explains the details of conceptual design process of the system. Results of test operations showed that the developed system performed the recovery and supply of the thermal energy according to design purposes.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.109-117
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• 2017

Coastal reclamation has created large flat lands, part of which is an attractive site to construct greenhouse complexes for the horticulture industry. Wind environments over these coastal lands are entirely different from those of the inland area, and demand increased structural safety. The objective of this study is to evaluate the structural safety of two single-span greenhouses, peach type and even-span type, under the wind characteristics of coastal reclaimed lands. The wind pressure coefficients acting on the walls and roofs of two greenhouses were measured by wind tunnel experiments, and those acting on the roofs were approximately two times larger than those suggested by the existing design guidelines. Consequently, structural analysis conducted by SAP2000 showed that greenhouse structures designed by the existing guidelines might lead to structural failure under coastal wind conditions because their maximum allowable wind speeds were lower than the design wind speed. Especially, the peach type greenhouse constructed in a reclaimed land could be damaged by approximately 48 % of the design wind speed and needed improvement of structural designs. This study suggested increasing the spacing of rafters with thicker pipes for the peach type greenhouse to enhance economic feasibility of the building under strong wind conditions of reclaimed lands.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.9-20
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• 2015

The demand of renewable energy is expected to grow in the long run in spite of current stable lower oil prices. Energy consumption for heating in horticulture greenhouse is large and affects the profits of the farms. This study analyzed the availability of biomass in rural area and proposed the strategies for utilizing the biomass for greenhouse heating. Data reveal the annual average fuel consumption in greenhouses is about 78 TOE/ha. Considering biomass resource in rural areas, agricultural residues are not sufficient to meet the biomass demand from greenhouses. Therefore it is recommended to secure further biomass including wild herbaceous biomass and woody biomass from forest. Based on the conditions of biomass gasification equipment investment and fuel prices, maximum allowable price of biomass turned out about 100,000 KRW/t to be competitive to kerosine. Biomass supply chain should be established for facilitating biomass trading between biomass consumers and biomass producers such as farmers who provide crop residues. An online trading system is an example of the system where consumers who utilize biomass make payments to suppliers and get the information about the biomass. Intermediate collection storages are required to store biomass from distributed sources. Operation of biomass heating systems in demonstration greenhouses is necessary to get information to refine and further develop commercial biomass heating systems. Relatively large greenhouses are desirable to have biomass heating systems for economic viability. The location of the greenhouse farms should be selected within the area where enough biomass resources are available for feeding the biomass facility.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.291-296
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• 2007

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of horizontal air flow produced by circulation fans on horizontal and vertical profiles of meteorological factors. The three-dimensional distributions of air speed, air temperature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide $(CO_2)$ concentration were measured with and without the fans in operation. The uniformity of the spatial distribution of meteorological factors decreased as the outside air temperature decreased. In "fans off" condition, spatial variations of $4.7^{\circ}C$ in air temperature, 19% in relative humidity were detected. When the fans were operated, these variations were reduced to 2.2 and 6.3%, respectively. As the fan capacity increased, the difference in air temperature among sampling points decreased. The fan capacity of $0.0104m^3{\cdot}s^{-1}{\cdot}m^{-2}$ was enough to obtain a reasonable air flow in greenhouse. The vertical profiles of air temperature and $CO_2$ concentration were reasonably uniform regardless of measurement height and fan capacity. Further researches on the position of fans to reduce the difference in air temperature along the width and the effects of using a larger number of smaller fans are required.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.258-265
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• 2009

This research was conducted to compare drymatter production and yield pattern between commercial glasshouse (G) and plastic greenhouse (PG) in Korea. In both greenhouses sawing and plating of sweet pepper was 28 August and 27 September, 2007. Destructive measurement and yield of sweet pepper, cv. 'Derby', was obtained from January to May, 2008. Averaged light transmissivity over 20 times observed 65% in G and 51 % in PG. The averaged daily radiation sum of greenhouses during whole growing period was $9.03MJ/m^2/day$ for G and $7.37MJ/m^2/day$ for PG Leaf area index (LAI) in G crop was 36% higher than the crop in PG at the end of experiment (247days after planting: DAP), whereas there was no significantly difference for 212 DAP in both greenhouses. Total dry matter production was $1759.9g{\cdot}m^{-2}$ for G and $1308.5g{\cdot}m^{-2}$ for PG Fruit production observed $14.1kg{\cdot}m^{-2}$ in G and $7.8kg{\cdot}m^{-2}$ in PG. There was slightly difference measurement of dry matter distribution of generative or vegetative parts to total dry matter between G and PG.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.432-437
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• 2022

In this study, strawberries were grown during the two cultivation periods (first: 2020-2021, second: 2021-2022) to analyze the effect of the external light environment and growing degree days (GDD) on crop production. The temperature and humidity during day in a greenhouse in each cultivation period were similarly managed. At night, there was a statistical difference in temperature and humidity in the greenhouse between two periods. The accumulated solar radiation during the first cultivation period was high in September and October. Since January, the accumulated solar radiation during the second cultivation period was high. In the second cultivation period, the initial yield was small because the accumulated solar radiation and GDD was small. But accumulated yields and potential maximum yields in second cultivation period were larger than yields in the first cultivation period as the accumulated solar radiation and GDD increased. The sugar contents of strawberry decreased as GDD increased.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.85-92
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• 2015

This study examined the settlement of a 1-2W type greenhouse using a timber pile, which was recently established on Gyehwa-do reclaimed land, in order to obtain base data for the construction of a greenhouse on reclaimed land. The results of this study are as follows. foundation and timber pile increased over time, irrespective of the interior and exterior of the upon investigation of the ground, it was confirmed that there was no soft rock stratum (bedrock), and that a sedimentary stratum existed under the fill deposit, which is estimated to have been reclaimed during the site renovation. It was also found that a weathered zone was located under the fill deposit and sedimentary stratum, and that the soil texture of the entire ground floor consisted of clay mixed with sand, silty clay, and granite gneiss, in that order, regardless of boreholes. In addition, the underground water level was 0.3m below ground, regardless of boreholes. Despite a slight difference, the settlement of the greenhouse or measurement sites (channels). With regard to the pillar inside the greenhouse, except in the case of CH-2, the data at a site located on the side wall of the greenhouse (wind barrier side) indicated vibrations of relatively larger amplitude. Moreover, the settlement showed a significant increase during a certain period, which was subsequently somewhat reversed. Based on these phenomena, it was verified that the settlement range of each site in the interior and exterior of the greenhouse was between 1.0 and 7.5mm at this time, except in the case of CH-1. The results of the regression analysis indicated good correlation, with the coefficient of determination by site ranging between 0.6362 and 0.9340. Furthermore, the coefficient of determination ranged between 0.6046 and 0.8822 on the exterior of the greenhouse, which is lower than inside the greenhouse, but still indicates significant correlation.

• Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.101-112
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• 2016

Monitoring and control of the greenhouse environment play a decisive role in greenhouse crop production processes. The network system for greenhouse control was developed by using recent technologies of networking and wireless communications. In this paper, a remote monitoring and control system for greenhouse using a smartphone and a computer with internet has been developed. The system provides real-time remote greenhouse integrated management service which collects greenhouse environment information and controls greenhouse facilities based on sensors and equipments network. Graphical user interface for an integrated management system was designed with bases on the HMI and the experimental results showed that a sensor data and device status were collected by integrated management in real-time. Because the sensor data and device status can be displayed on a web page, transmitted using the server program to remote computer and mobile smartphone at the same time. The monitored-data can be downloaded, analyzed and saved from server program in real-time via mobile phone or internet at a remote place. Performance test results of the greenhouse control system has confirmed that all work successfully in accordance with the operating conditions. And data collections and display conditions, event actions, crops and equipments monitoring showed reliable results.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.244-252
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• 2009

This research aims at comparison of climatic conditions of sweet pepper's greenhouse between Korea (KOR) and the Netherlands (NL) to find out the reason of much lower yield in KOR than NL focus-ing on greenhouse climatic conditions. Hence, greenhouse climate data were obtained from each one commercial glasshouse in both countries. The crops (cv. 'Derby') were grown on rockwool slab with two stems per plant with 3.75plants/$m^2$ in KOR and three stems per plant with 2.5plants/$m^2$ or four stems per plant with 1.875plants/$m^2$ in NL. Even though plant density was differed but stem density was on the same to 7.5stems/$m^2$. There was no significantly difference on weekly growth of sweet pepper plant both countries, whereas harvested nodes to whole nodes of NL's plant was more than two times higher compared to KOR. The averaged daily global radiation during the whole growing periods was 14.5MJ/$m^2$/day in KOR and l2.1MJ/$m^2$/day in NL. Averaged 24h temperature was similar to both glasshouse as $21.6^{\circ}C$ in KOR and $21.2^{\circ}C$ in NL during the whole growing periods, however the variance was higher in KOR than NL. Humidity deficit (HD) was observed higher in KOR during the whole growing periods. Averaged day $CO_2$ concentration was measured contrary pattern in both countries because of heating to greenhouse on NL winter season. Averaged 24h temperature and day $CO_2$ concentration to daily global radiation was regular pattern in NL, whereas there are large scatter in KOR. Consequently, more irregular greenhouse climate condition in KOR could be induced irregularly crop growth.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.353-360
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• 2017

In this study, the design and performance test of the air to water heat pump capable of producing hot water for greenhouse heating by using the surplus solar heat inside the greenhouse and the air heat outside greenhouse as the selective heat source were conducted. The heat storage operations using the surplus solar heat and the outside air heat were designed to be switched according to the setting temperature of the greenhouse in consideration of the optimum temperature range of the crop. In the developed system, it was possible to automatically control the switching of heat storage operation, heating and ventilation by setting 12 reference temperatures on the control panel. In the selective heat storage operation with the surplus solar heat and outside air heat, the temperature of thermal storage tank was controlled variably from $35^{\circ}C$ to $52^{\circ}C$ according to the heat storage rate and heating load. The heat storage operation times using the surplus solar heat and outside air heat were 23.1% and 30.7% of the experimental time respectively and the heat pump pause time was 46.2%. COP(coefficient of performance) of the heat pump of the heat storage operation using the surplus solar heat and outside air heat were 3.83 and 2.77 respectively and was 3.24 for whole selective heat storage operation. For the comparative experiment, the heat storage operation using the outside air heat only was performed under the condition that the temperature of the thermal storage tank was controlled constantly from 50 to $52^{\circ}C$, and COP was analyzed to be 2.33. As a result, it was confirmed that the COP of the heat storage operation using the surplus solar heat and outside air heat as selective heat source and the variable temperature control of the thermal storage tank was 39% higher than that of the general heat storage operation using the outside air heat only and the constant temperature control of the thermal storage tank.