International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 432437

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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / i c h m t

Optimization of ventilated roofs for livestock housing

Paolo Liberati a, Marco Spiga b,, Paolo Zappavigna a
a
b

Dipartimento di Protezione e Valorizzazione Agro-Alimentare, Sezione di Ingegneria, University of Bologna, Italy

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Universit di Parma, Viale G.P. Usberti 181/A, 43100 Parma, Italy

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Available online 14 March 2009

Keywords:
Ventilated roofs
Laminar ow in rectangular section
H2 boundary conditions

a b s t r a c t
This paper aims at optimizing the performance of roong components equipped with a ventilated interspace
in order to reduce the heat load inside the animal houses. By means of a theoretical model and experimental
tests, the three-dimensional prole of the air temperature in the duct is determined. Consequently the air
temperature inside a typical house for livestock is calculated. The air ow is considered uniform inside the
rectangular duct and the thermal problem is solved by adopting H2 boundary conditions. The air temperature
in the house is then calculated and the optimal duct thickness minimizing it was determined.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In livestock housing the control of the climatic parameters is a
determinant factor for production. In fact the metabolic activity of
the animals varies remarkably with the hygro-thermal parameters, in such a way that as more they diverge from the optimal
values as more the productive performance worsens. While the
lower optimal thresholds (about 10 C for the dairy cows and a bit
higher for pigs and poultry) can easily be respected in winter time
with simple constructive solutions, the upper thresholds (around
24 C for all the species) are very often exceeded in the hot
climate conditions (being uneconomical the adoption of air
conditioning systems). Indeed the high density of animals
producing metabolic heat makes the inside temperatures higher
than the outside for nearly the whole day. In such extreme
conditions, with production losses of 20% or more, an even small
reduction of the internal temperature can lead to signicant
economical benets. Therefore it is interesting to nd out
constructive solutions capable of maintaining the inside temperature as low as possible during all the day, minimizing the solar
energy load and maximizing the heat discharge during the night.
To this purpose, in addition to a careful control of ventilation, the
adoption of shield components combining a high thermal
resistance to the solar radiation with a low resistance to the
heat transfer from inside to outside can be very helpful. This is
mainly relevant for the roof, the part of the building shield more
involved in the heat exchange, night and day. Considering the
requirements above mentioned both the insinuated and the

Communicated by E. Hahne and K. Spindler.

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: marco.spiga@unipr.it (M. Spiga).
0735-1933/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2009.01.023

insulated roong appear to be inadequate; the rst ones

permitting an undesired increase of the temperature during the
day; the second ones hindering the temperature decrease during
the night. The research of constructive solutions capable of
satisfying those opposite requirements led us to investigate the
possibility of realizing light roong components combining the
resistance of the insulation to the solar load with the discharging
action of a ventilated chamber during the night. This hypothesis is
the object of a study carried out both in a theoretical and in an
experimental way, the results of which are presented in this
paper.
2. The thermouid-dynamic model
We considered a ventilated roof (Fig. 1) made of: a) an upper
bre-cement undulated sheet; b) an underlying panel of insulating material; c) a channel where air can ow having as upper
surface the insulating panel and as lower surface a bre-cement
plane sheet; d) a sustaining structure.
The ventilated channel, with a rectangular section, is run by an
air ow (Newtonian uid), mainly moved by the wind. To analyze
the air temperature distribution inside the channel we introduce a
three dimensional Cartesian reference system ,,, having its
origin in the bottom left corner of the inlet section (Fig. 2).
According to the preliminary experimental tests we could assume
the ow as a laminar under forced convection, being Re2 NN Gr.
Assuming the simplifying hypothesis that the speed prole is
uniform, the three-dimensional temperature distribution can be
obtained solving the equation of the energy conservation [1]:

cW

AT
=
Af

!
A2 T
A2 T
A2 T
+
+
:
An2
A2
Af2

P. Liberati et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 432437

433

Nomenclature
a
b
c
D
Gr
Gz
h

width of the ventilation duct cross section [m]

height of the rectangular cross section [m]
air specic heat at constant pressure [J kg 1 K 1]
hydraulic diameter of the rectangular cross section [m]
Grashof number
Graetz number
convection coefcient between air and duct wall
[W m 2 K 1]
thermal conductivity of the cover sheet [W m 1 K 1]
dimensionless length of the ventilation duct
Nusselt number in the entry region, h D/
fully developed Nusselt number
Prandtl number
heat ux on the bottom side of the duct [W m 2]
specic thermal resistance of the cover [m2 K W 1]
Reynolds number
thickness of the cover sheet [m]
external ambient and inlet air temperature [K]
air temperature in the livestock housing [K]
bulk air temperature in the duct [K]
air temperature in the duct [K]
heated wall temperature at y = 0 [K]
heating power in the livestock housing [W]
power transferred through the livestock housing walls
[W]
power transferred through the cover [W]
air mean velocity in the duct [m s 1]
dimensionless Cartesian coordinates

k
L
Nu(z)
Nufd
Pr
q
R
Re
s
T0
Ti
Tb(z)
T(.)
Tw
Qlamp
Qw
Qroof
W
x,y,z

Greek symbols

air thermal diffusivity in the duct [m2 s 1]

aspect ratio for the rectangular duct, b/a b1

heat transfer coefcient between air in the livestock

housing and inner cover wall [Wm 2 K 1]

air thermal conductivity [W m 1 K 1]

air kinematic viscosity [m2s 1]

ventilation channel length [m]

dimensionless temperature

air density [kg m 3]

,,
Cartesian coordinates [m]

We then introduce the dimensionless coordinates and the temperature as follows:

n
x= ;
a

y=
;
a

f
1
z= 2
;
=
Gz
a W

T T0
=
:
qa

Then the hydraulic diameter of the duct can be written as

D = 2a / (1 + ).
According with H2 boundary condition [1], providing the thermal
ow along the x axis to be constant and implying a linear variation of the
temperature along the z axis, the energy balance equation becomes:
A
A2
A2
=
+
:
2
Az
Ax
Ay2

This is a classical problem of thermo-uid dynamics for internal

ows in a duct with a rectangular section where one (bigger) wall is
refrigerated and the other three walls are adiabatic. The unknown
temperature is sought as a series of co-sinusoidal functions of x and y,
in which also a set of functions of z is included [2]:
x; y; z =

X
X
m=0 n=0



y
:
Fmn z cosnx cos m

Introducing the expression (6) into the Eq. (4) and integrating, for
x varying from 0 to 1 and y varying from 0 to , thanks to the property
of the orthogonal complete system of cosines, an Eq. (2) is determined
permitting to obtain the terms of the function system Fmn(z).
Developing the calculations and solving the integrals [3], after
some algebra we obtain:
"
!#


2 2

z
2 X
1
n
y
+ 2
:
x; y; z =
1 exp 2 z
cos n
2

n=1 n

A
A
A
j
j
j
=
=
= 0:
Ax x = 0
Ax x = 1
Ay y =

The bulk air temperature and the temperature of the refrigerated

wall (y = 0) result:
b z =

2 X
1
n2 2
+
2
w y = 0; z =
exp 2 z
2

3
n=1 n

X
1

;
=
2
6
n
1

X
1n

;
=
2
12
n
1

X
1

:
=
4
90
n
1

8
9

10

The dimensionless bulk air temperature is reported in Fig. 3, when

= 0.1.

The boundary conditions are:

A
j
= 1;
Ay y = 0

being [3]:

From there it results 0 x 1, 0 y , 0 z L, being the number

L dened as:

L= 2
:
a W

Fig. 1. Cross section of the ventilated roof and the experimental facility.

Fig. 2. Rectangular section duct.

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P. Liberati et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 432437

Fig. 3. Dimensionless temperature prole of the uid in the totally developed ow

region, for = 0.1.

The Nusselt number related to the thermal convective exchange

between the uid and the non-adiabatic wall is then:
Nu =

2
6
=
1 + w b
1+

1
1

6
2

P
n=1

1
n2


:
2 2
exp n2 z

11

The Nusselt, number as a function of z, is reported for different

values in Fig. 4 where it appears that the length of the thermal entry
region, according to [4] is Lth = 0.25806 2.
The length of the thermal entry region is rigorously dened as the
part of the duct where the ratio [T(x,y,z) Tw(z)]/[Tb(z) Tw(z)]
depends on the z axial coordinate; in this region the Nusselt number is
strongly decreasing until the value 1.05 Nufd.
The length th of the thermal entry region is shown in Fig. 5, as a
function of the air velocity, for different values of the duct height b and
considering the thermal-physical properties of the air at 30 C. The
length of the thermal entry region in the rectangular duct increases
linearly with the air velocity at the entry, and increases in a quadratic
way with the duct height according to the equation:
th = 0:25806

b2 W
:

12

The temperature prole for the thermally fully developed ow

(where the Nusselt number can be considered constant along z) can
be represented by the limit for z , obtaining the well known result
w(y = 0) b = /3 e Nufd = 6/(1 + ) [46]. Furthermore it results:
x; y; zY b =




2 X
1
y

y2
=
y+
:
cos
n
2
2

3
2
n=1 n

13

The power transferred from the building to the air owing into the
R
cooling channel is aq = a 0 Ti R Tw d1, that is:
RL
=
a

i w dz:

14

The thermal resistance R (referred to the surface unit a) is

depending on the thermal characteristics of the plane covering sheet

Fig. 5. Length of the entrance region as function of the air velocity, for different
thickness of the rectangular duct.

and it is given by the sum of the thermal resistances (conductive,

convective and radiative) of the constructive element separating the
duct from the building environment.
R=

Xs

ki

1
:

15

Assuming a complete mixing of the air inside the building it is

reasonable to adopt a steady internal temperature being:
!

R
L

3
23 X
1
n2 2
i =
+
+

+ 4
exp 2 L :
a
2
3
45L
L n = 1 n4

The series t into the Eq. (16) is strongly convergent; the numerical
analysis permits to deduce a simple exponential function capable of
expressing the building internal air temperature as:
3

R
L

KL
+
+

+
exp 2
i =
a
2
3
45L
45L

!
17

being K = 1.0113.
The dimensionless temperature i is resulting as a function of and
L; therefore the air temperature of the building Ti is depending on , L
and q. The functional relationship between i and q is simply
proportional, whilst more complicated is the dependence of the
temperature on and L.
The aim of this work is to nd out the optimal cooling conditions,
that is the height of the ventilation duct able to minimize the
internal building temperature, given the duct length and the air inlet
velocity. To determine such height we have to nd out the value
minimizing the building internal temperature by analysing the
derivative:

di
L

6 X
1
n L
=
+ 4

exp
2
d
15L
2
2
L 1 n4
!
2 2

4 X
1
n L
1
exp
+ 2
+ :
2
3
1 n
2
2

Fig. 4. Nusselt number as a function of z, for different values.

16

2 2

!
18

The Figs. 6 and 7, where the graphs of the temperature i and of its
derivative versus are reported as a function of (following the L
variation), show that the internal air temperature i is a monotonous
function decreasing with (in the physical domain 0 b b 1), tending
to a constant value increasing with L.
The derivative versus of the internal air temperature is a
monotonous function with a negative value, tending to 0.
The constant value obtained by i as a function of L represents
the minimum possible value min of the air temperature inside the

P. Liberati et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 432437

435

Fig. 8. Dimensionless minimum air temperature of the room.

Using the method of the minimum squares we nd the analytical

approximate expression (whose graph is reported as a dashed line in
Fig. 9):
Fig. 6. Dimensionless inside air temperature as a function of , for different L values,
with R = 0.1 m2 K W 1, a = 1 m, = 0.026 W m 1K 1.

building and such a value is shown in Fig. 8 as a function of L

(assuming for simplicity R = 0).
From the minimum squares method we obtain an approximating
very simple equation giving the functional relationship between the
minimum dimensionless temperature and L:
min =

p
R
+ 0:7522 L:
a

19

Such a function is reported as a dashed line in Fig. 8 and gives an

optimal approximation of the real value of min. This minimum
temperature must be associated with the L parameter and is by
denition independent on (being related to = 1, as shown in the
graph of Fig. 6).
As we can see in Fig. 6 the minimum temperature is not only
reached in = 1, but in a domain of the extension of which depends
on L.
Since it would not make any sense, from the economical and the
designing point of view, to adopt a cooling channel having = 1, it will
be more reasonable and economical to choose a smaller value of the
duct thickness, still able to obtain the minimum temperature with an
arbitrarily predetermined approximation.
Therefore, for a practical use, it is useful to nd the ratio opt,
dened as the value of permitting to obtain a i value differing 1%
from the minimum value min. From the numerical analysis we easily
get such a value, obtained, as a function of L, by solving the equation:
!

X
opt
L
1
n

+
+
exp 2 L
3
45L
2opt
L n = 1 n4
opt

3opt

2 3opt
4

2 2


p
= 1:01 0:7522 L :

20

opt = 1:7735 L

0:5213

21

With a good approximation, we can say that the optimal height of

the channel is directly proportional to the square root of its length and
inversely proportional to the square root of the wind speed.
3. Materials and methods
Experimental tests have been carried out on a partially reduced
model shown in Fig. 1.
The main dimensional characteristics of the channel are assumed
as: length = 6.0 m; width a = 1.0 m; slope 20%. The bottom side of
the channel is made of a bre cement sheet having height of 0.005 m
and conductivity = 0.45 W m 1 K 1.
The walls and the oor of the room underneath are made of
expanded polyurethane panels (0.10 m thick). To simulate the animals
thermal contribution some incandescent lamps were introduced with
a total power Qlamp = 100 W.
For each experimental arrangement the following parameters have
been measured: 1) the surface temperatures of all the roof layers in a
middle position and, for the bre cement sheet, near the air inlet and
outlet too; 2) the air temperature at the entrance, exit and in the
centre of the channel and the air velocity in a central position; 3) the
temperature, velocity and direction of the external air; 4) the solar
radiation intensity; 5) the air temperature in two signicant positions
of the room. The measurement of the temperature was made by
means of PT100 thermoresitances; the accuracy of the measurement
system was 0.1 K.
4. Experimental results and validation of the model
Among the many tests carried out with various roong shapes we
will consider in the present work only the two more signicant
(differing by the height of the ventilation duct) here called case A,
with b = 0.070 m and case B, with b = 0.035 m.

The dimensionless thickness of the duct (for the building cooling

purpose) opt is shown in Fig. 8 as a function of L.

Fig. 7. i derivative toward , for different L values.

Fig. 9. opt as a function of L.

436

P. Liberati et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 432437

Table 1
Inside air temperature, measured and calculated by the model, in day night (C).
Ti,
Measured
Model

Ti,

24.0
24.0

Ti, A Ti,

23.7
23.6

0.3
0.4

For the 95% of the testing time the air ow motion has revealed to
be a forced convection (Re2 NN Gr), and for the 65% the convection was
laminar too, especially in the case B. The condition of forced
convection was favoured by the northsouth orientation of the pitch
having the cross section of the ventilated channel perpendicular to the
dominating wind. The wind was mainly a breeze with peak persistent
values of about 1.0 m s 1 and average values of about 0.5 m s 1.
The validation of the model has been carried out selecting, among
the collected data, those periods where the steady conditions of the air
temperature, solar radiation and wind speed were respected. The
validation has been made in the nocturnal situation only because the
strong solar contribution didnt allow to fully satisfy the boundary
condition of adiabaticity assumed in the model.
The dimensionless temperature of the air in the room (i) was
calculated by means of the Eq. (16). The i values so obtained have
then been transformed by means of Eq. (2), made explicit in T. The q
parameter included in Eq. (2) was calculated using the experimental
data through the stationary thermal balance of the building as:
22

Qlamp = Qw + Qroof

where Qlamp is the heat supplied by the lamps, Qw is the heat

exchanged through the walls (Qw = T Kw Sw, where Kw is the overall
thermal transmittance value [W m 2 K 1], Sw the surface of the
building shield excluding the roof and T is the temperature
difference inside/outside); Qroof is the heat exchanged through the
ventilated channel.
Once obtained Qroof it becomes possible to calculate the specic
thermal ow at the bottom surface of the ventilated duct q [W m 2]:
q = Qroof = a

23

where a represents the thermal exchange surface between the duct

and the room underneath.
The theoretical and measured values of temperature are reported
in Table 1. As we can see the model is very well working in both the
cases (Ti, A Titheor, A = 0.0 K, Ti, B Titheor, B = 0.1 K).
In the same Table it is evident that the case B is more efcient than
the case A, both in the experiment and in the model (Ti,A NTi,B) and this
result matches the optimisation indications of the model. In fact,
calculating bopt by the Eq. (21) the case B presents values very near to
the theoretical optimum (bopt medio = 0.023 m, bexperimental = 0.035 m),
whilst for the case A the optimum values are about the half of the
experimental (bopt medio = 0.034 m, bexperimental = 0.070 m).
The power removed by the ventilated tunnel calculated trough the
Eq. (22) is similar in both cases (Table 2); instead the specic power,
shows a higher efciency, of about 50 %, of the case B compared to the
case A.
Finally, if we look at the air velocities inside the duct (W varies
from 0.20 until 0.60 m s 1) and consider that they are the highest
measured during the experimental test, when the wind blows parallel

Table 2
Heat removed by ventilation through the duct, total and per unit of the duct section, for
the two tested roofs.
Case A

Case B

Total (W)

Specic (W m 2)

Total (W)

Specic (W m 2)

51

1126

53

2266

Fig. 10. bopt as function of air velocity (W), for the tested roofs.

to the duct axis, we can see, again from the Eq. (22), that with
0.047 bopt 0.026 m all the anemological conditions of the experimental site inuencing the optimal dimensioning of b are covered
(Fig. 10).
5. Conclusions
The proposed method makes it possible to determine the prole of
the air temperature inside the ventilated duct and the air temperature
inside the room underneath when the thermal ow q is known, under
the hypothesis that the motion is laminar with forced convection, and
the upper roong sheet is perfectly insulated from the outer
conditions. In the case q is not known, its however possible to nd
out the optimal conditions in order to cool the room, by making
evident a relationship between the thickness of the ventilated
duct and an dimensionless parameter L, directly proportional to
the length of the channel and inversely proportional to the air velocity at the entrance of the channel (easy to be calculated as a function
of the wind speed and direction and of the discharge losses at
the inlet).
Once the width of the channel is xed, the optimal height is a
monotonous and increasing function of the parameter L; therefore, for
the same air velocity W, opt increases with the increase of the length
of the duct , whilst for an equal length the optimal height decreases
when W increases.
So for an animal house the ventilated duct should be designed
when the anemological situation of the site is known. If the wind
conditions are such to determine a laminar motion inside the duct, the
optimisation should be pursued taking into account that the air
temperature inside the room cannot decrease below the value:
Tmin = T0 + q R + 0:140

r!

:
W

24

In order to obtain lower temperatures inside the room it is obviously

necessary that its covering sheet (the base of the ventilated duct) had
the minimum thermal resistance as possible, that is being made of a well
conductive material and having a little thickness. Furthermore the
optimum height of the ventilated duct can be calculated (as a function of
the length and the air speed at the entrance) by the simple relationship
(Eq. (21)) that can be approximated as:
bopt = 6:8360x10

0:5213

25

The dimensional units of the parameters written in the Eqs. (21)

and (22) should be expressed following the International System; the
numerical values in the same equations are obtained considering an
air temperature of 30 C ( = 23.4 10 6 m2/s, = 0.026 W m 1 K 1 ).

P. Liberati et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 432437

The results show also how relevant is the presence of the thermal
entrance region that in many real cases can reduce to a negligible
quantity the length of the region of the thermally fully developed ow.
In such situations it would be rough to arrange numerical simulations
based on the temperature proles of the air inside the duct and on the
pertinent heat transfer coefcients (or Nusselt numbers) deducted by
the wide bibliography on the thermally fully developed ow.
The three-dimensional analysis, or at least the bi-dimensional one
but rigorously considering the axial coordinate z, becomes therefore
essential for a proper numerical simulation aimed at designing and
dimensioning the ventilated ducts.
Finally, it has been put into evidence that the optimal dimensions
of the duct cannot be calculated in abstract terms but, as shown by the
model and by the experiments, are depending on the anemological
characteristics of the site.

437

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[3] I.S. Gradshtein, I.M. Ryzhik, Table of Integrals, Series and Products, Academic Press,
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