Development of a CFD model to simulate the dispersion of atmospheric NH3 in a semi-open barn

Abstract

The dispersion of atmospheric NH3 constitutes the most common passive polluting system in cattle stables. Although the studies carried out through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are focused on improving the environmental conditions in situ to increase the productivity of stables, they do not refer to determining the environmental impact of NH3 emissions into the atmosphere. This work evaluated the distribution of the NH3 flux inside a barn using CFD and its relationship with environmental conditions through probabilistic analysis by the K2 algorithm. The initial data on environmental conditions were wind speed and direction, maximum temperature, and humidity from the nearest weather station in a region characterized by hot weather conditions during summer. The vertical trajectory was used to analyze the impact of long-range transport on the spatial distribution, where 75% is between 0 and 5 m in height, and 25% is between 10 and 20 m outside the eaves. The work concluded that temperature is the main parameter of influence.