Effect of internal surface structure of the north wall on Chinese solar greenhouse thermal microclimate based on computational fluid dynamics

Chinese solar greenhouses are unique facility agriculture buildings and widely used in northeastern China, providing a favorable requirement for crop growth. The north wall configurations play an essential role in heat storage and thermal insulation and directly affect the management of the internal environment. This research is devoted to further improve the thermal performance of the greenhouse and explore the potential of the north wall. A mathematical model was designed to investigate the concave-convex wall configurations based on computational fluid dynamics. Four passive heat-storage north walls were analyzed by using the same constituent materials, including a plane wall, a vertical wall, a horizontal wall and an alveolate wall. The numerical model was validated by experimental measurements. The temperature distributions of the north walls were examined and a comparative analysis of the heat storage-release capabilities was carried out. The results showed that the heat-storage capacity of the north wall is affected by the surface structure. Moreover, the critical factor influencing the air temperature is the sum of the heat load released by the wall and the energy increment of greenhouse air. The results suggested that the alveolate wall has preferable thermal accumulation capacity. The concave-convex wall configurations have a wider range of heat transfer performance along the thickness direction, while the plane wall has a superior thermal environment. This study provides a basic theoretical reference to rationally design the internal surface structures of the north wall.