Objective of studying bioenvironmental control

General

Course Philosophy

Suggestion for Success

References

E-mail

Homework and Daily Assignments

Technical paper review reports

Group Term project

Group term project report

Objective of studying bioenvironmental control

General.

To enhance problem solving skills, writing and oral communications skills; to develop the ability to work together in groups; and to broaden the students technical knowledge and understanding of engineering design. Students should begin to understand that many design problems are open ended and may have several potential solutions. Not all information needed to fit models or equations is readily available - often simplifying assumptions will be required.

The following specific objectives will be addressed

1. Heat transfer Learn the basis of heat transfer theory. Become familiar with the heat transfer mechanisms and the methods for estimating the amount of heat transferred. These are needed to design heating systems, estimate heat loss and understand the heat stress on animals.

2. Psychrometrics

• Learn the important characteristics of air/water mixtures, how these properties are related and how to determine them.

• Learn what psychrometric processes are important in agricultural facilities and how to evaluate them.

• Learn how to use psychrometric charts. Understanding psychrometrics is fundamental to understanding bioenvironmental problems.

3. Bioenergetics (Product storage and animal thermal environment) Become familiar with animal/environment interactions; what animals need in an environment, and how the environment affects animals. Understand the environmental requirements for product storages and the effects of adverse environment on product quality. How are environmental effects measured. How to estimate heat and moisture production rates by animals and agricultural products, and what factors affect these rates. What is the effect of the environment on plants and animals.

4. Combined heat transfer Learn the techniques for analyzing thermal conditions and balances in buildings and how to evaluate heat loss from buildings which are composed of many components.

5. Insulation Understand properties and characteristics of various insulating materials, how some of these characteristics vary, and how to calculate overall thermal resistances. Learn how, why, and where to use insulation.

6. Temperature and moisture gradients Learn how to estimate temperatures at a plane in a composite structure (wall, etc.) and why the temperature gradient is important. Be able to predict if and where condensation may occur within a wall or similar structure.

7. Heat loads & seasonal heating demand Learn how to estimate the total heat load on buildings; what temperatures are used, and what the heat load information is used for. Learn the purpose for estimating seasonal heating demand and the methods used for calculation.

8. Heat balance Learn the parameters in the heat balance equations for agricultural buildings, how to apply the equations, and how to determine values for the parameters.

9. Environmental modification systems Become familiar with systems for heating and cooling agricultural structures. Understand the impacts of solar energy and methods of utilizing.

10. Ventilation Learn to determine required ventilation rates and supplemental heat needs. Be able to select appropriate ventilation rates and system components. Understand the principles of air movement, distribution and control. How is air mixing achieved? Learn the principles of natural ventilation, the building design requirement, and problems that may be encountered. Know how to plan ventilation systems.

2.     Course Philosophy

Learning is an active process from the teacher's and from the learner's points of view. Teachers and students have a strong responsibility to one another.
My obligations as a teacher include:

• being knowledgeable and current on the subject matter,

• planning and providing good learning experiences,

• evaluating work fairly, promptly, and frequently, and

• assisting you to meet the course goals and to fulfill your needs.

Student obligations include:

• reading and completing assignments,

• participating actively and positively in the learning process, and

• expressing needs to the teacher.

3. Suggestion for Success

• Prepare for class. Skim the reading material and think about the subject matter. A few minutes invested before the material is covered in class is equivalent to hours of pre-exam cramming.

• Be organized. Do the assignments and submit them on time.

• Ask for help. Consult the instructor and classmates.

• Be bold. Dare to try innovative approaches, to think out loud, to ask questions, and to risk your pride in order to learn.

4. References for AE 452 Bioenvironmental Engineering

o       Structures and Environment Handbook, MWPS-1, 11th Ed., 1983. Midwest Plan Service.

o       Principles of Environmental Physics, 2nd Ed., Monteith & Unsworth, 1990

o       Basic Engineering Principles, 2nd Ed., Merkel, 1983

o       Thermal Environmental Engineering, 2nd Ed., Threlkeld, 1970

o       Ventilation of Agricultural Structures, Hellickson & Walker (eds), 1983

o       Environmental Aspects of Housing for Animal Production, Clark, 1981

o       Environmental and Functional Engineering of Agricultural Buildings, Barre, Sammet & Nelson, 1988

o       Agricultural and Horticultural Engineering, Studman, 1990

o       Environmental Control for Agricultural Buildings, M.L. Esmay and J.E. Dixon, AVI Publ. Co., 1986.

o       Handbook of Fundamentals, ASHRAE, 1993.

o       Livestock Environmental Management in Animal Agriculture, S.E. Curtis, 1983.

o       Livestock Environment II, Proc, 2nd Int'l. Livestock Envr. Symp., ASAE Publ. 3-82. 1982.

o       The Energy Efficient Construction Manual, EES-27, H.J. Hirning and L.P. Vogel. 1986.

o       ASAE Standards Relating to Environmental Control:

• D270.4 Design of Ventilation Systems for Poultry and Livestock Shelters

• D271.2 Psychrometric Data

• S401 Use of Thermal Insulation in Agricultural Buildings

• EP406 Heating, Ventilating, and Cooling Greenhouses

• EP567 Design and Performance of Livestock Mechanical Ventilation Systems

5. E-MAIL

Assignment # 1

E-mail is an efficient means of communication. In this course you are invited to use e-mail whenever possible. In some cases submission of an assignment by email will be specified. If you do not already have an email account you should immediately obtain one.
Your first assignment will be to send me an email message. The message you send is not important, but this will provide me your address and let me know that you do have an account.

6. HOMEWORK AND DAILY ASSIGNMENTS

A number of problems will be assigned as homework during the semester. These problems should be solved in a neat, orderly fashion in accordance with the guidelines given in AE 110. The problem worksheet should be indentified with the course number, date, student name, and if more than one page, the page number.
The format for each problem is to give a problem number and then three section (1)"Given" stating the information given; (2) "Find" - what is the problem asking; and (3) "Solution" showing work, mathematics, stating sources of information, and give any assumptions. The final answer should be clearly identified.
Problems will be graded based on accuracy and apparent understanding. The grade will be reduced by 50% if problems are turned after they have been discussed in class and by 100%, i.e., no credit, if more than a week late.

7. TECHNICAL PAPER REVIEW REPORTS

• Assignment #2 (Due 10 Sept) Review the course syllabus and then conduct a search for technical papers on a related topic. Use the CD-ROM available at the library.
  Select appropriate database(s) , keywords, and limits. You may connect through the computers located in AgEngr 222 or at other locations around campus.Select at least three articles, one of which you will be ask to prepare a written and oral summary. Make sure you will be able to access the actual article.
  For this assignment you are to prepare a written description, using a word processor, of how you conducted the search - databases used, keywords, limits, etc. And give complete citations for the three articles selected - indicating your order of preference.

• Assignment # 3 Prepare a written summary (Due 17 Sep) of the article assigned. The article assigned will be your first choice from assignment #2, except where there are duplications. If two or more students select the same first choices, then the instructor will make random selections.
  The summary should be submitted via email. You should follow the writing style guide provided in AE 110. If you so not have a copy available please ask the instructor. The written summary can be submitted as the body of the email message or as an attachment. These reports should not exceed four minutes.

8. GROUP TERM PROJECT

A term project is required and will count as 25% of the final grade. Each group of 2 or 3 students will select an agricultural building, determine environmental needs, and plan an environmental control system. Written and brief oral reports will be required. The project selected must entail some positive environmental control, i.e., a simple open front cattle shed will not be satisfactory.
The project should demonstrate an understanding of environmental needs in agriculture. An evaluation should be included to show the application of environmental control principles. The solution selected does not have to be one discussed in class. Students are encouraged to exhibit creativity and insight at arriving at reasonable (and practical) solutions.

The following steps will each require a written report:

-	-	Written reports due
1	Prepare a written statement defining the purpose of building	Sep 21
2	Prepare a progress report including: (1) Specify environment desired and discuss alternatives, i.e., effects of not maintaining the best environment. State specific environmental control objectives and give specifications for environmental control system and management of system. This report should include specific environmental objectives, system analysis and give specification for the environmental control system and describe method of management. The environmental analysis should provide calculations showing: heat balance ventilation requirements R-values	Oct 15
3	Submit a draft report. This report should be complete and well written.	Nov 14
4	Oral Report	Nov 30
5	Final Report	Dec 5

Oral reports will be Nov. The oral reports should be only five to ten minutes but should briefly cover the following information (which should also be covered completely in the final report):

o      Brief description of the project (environmental control objectives)

o      Building parameters that affect environment

o      Design parameters (weather & animals - size, heat & moisture production)

o      Analysis

o      Control strategy

o      Expected variances

Topics that have been used include: swine housing, beef housing, free stall dairy barn, llama and ostrich housing, potato storage, sugarbeet storage, flower drying building, mushroom growing building, barly malting plant, ostrich and emu barn, and greenhouses.

9. GROUP TERM PROJECT REPORT

Final report guidelines:

The final report should integrate all information contained in previous reports. The report should be organized in a logical manner, and be well written using good sentence structure and correct spelling. A good source for assistance in writing is the Purdue Online Writing Lab. General information on writing style is available from The Elements of Style .

Drawings or illustrations should be neat and prepared using accepted engineering practice. Information sources should be cited and a list of references included. The list of references should follow departmental guidelines - e.g., author, date, article title, journal or book, volume number (issue number):page numbers. Methods of citing electronic sources has been discussed by Walker.

The following is a general outline that may be used (deviations may be used if it will improve the report):

Title page

• Title of report
• Authors
• Course number
• Date

Define purpose of building

State environmental objective

• Discuss impact of the environment on building performance, i.e. how will environment affects animals or product housed.
• Discuss alternative environments and their impacts
• Define building parameters relating to environment
• Perform environmental analysis giving necessary calculations
• Describe environmental control system and explain how it will be managed

Discuss the complete system

• Is it expected to operate reliably and provide the desired environment on a continuous basis?
• Is the system considered practical, and economical?
• What further considerations should be made regarding the system?
• Does the system match current commonly used systems? Is it a state-of-the-art system?

Briefly summarize the report.