Improvement of the thermal behavior of a northern community greenhouse

• Main Author: Piché, Paul
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de Génie Thermique Énergétique et Procédés (EA1932) (LATEP), Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (UPPA), Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, Stéphane Gibout, Didier Haillot
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: Northern greenhouse; Thermal energy storage; Rockbeds; Experimental; Numerical model; Calibration; Serre nordique; Stockage de la chaleur; Lit de roches; Expérimental; Modélisation numérique; [PHYS.PHYS]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]; inuit
• Online Access: https://theses.hal.science/tel-03368948; https://theses.hal.science/tel-03368948/document; https://theses.hal.science/tel-03368948/file/thesispichepaul.pdf

Due to the difficult access to their territories, Northern Canada’s Inuit have faced major adaptation challenges in recent decades, notably in terms of food and energy. Traditional food from hunting, fishing and gathering activities is increasingly difficult to obtain, while European and Canadian foods brought by air or by sea are increasingly expensive. Culture in greenhouses appears as a solution allowing to improve access to fresh vegetables by reducing the ecological and financial costs linked to the transportation of these.The scientific literature on the physical study of northern greenhouses and energetic data (temperature, electricity consumpion, etc.) is scarce. The first part of this thesis has to do with the pinpointing of northern greenhouses existing in North America and shows that this subject is relatively recent. On the other hand, this literature review revealed that the majority of counted greenhouses are not adapted to a cold climate, hence short growing seasons.The second part of this work focuses on the experimental aspect. Data coming from an instrumentation campaign in a northern greenhouse were analysed to demonstrate the relevance of the establishment of a daily thermal energy storage (TES) system. The dimensioning and construction of this system using air as a coolant fluid and local rocks as storage material are also presented. The instrumentation of the rockbed which stores heat has allowed to study energetical data during charge and discharge phases of the stock. This analysis demonstrated the positive impact of the set up of the TES system on the thermal behavior of the greenhouse.The last part of this work concerns the modeling of the thermal behavior of the greenhouse and the TES system. As a matter of fact, the numerical simulation of the climate in a greenhouse is basic in order to understand the improvement mechanisms of existing greenhouses and/or to optimize the conceiving of enclosures for vegetable production in a northern environment. Indeed, a nodal model of the ...