A simulation model to predict the internal climatic conditions in livestock houses as a tool for improving the building design and management

A model simulating the transient environmental conditions inside the livestock houses has been created for building design. The software can be applied to any type of building, animal or climatic situation and gives as outputs the heat exchange trough all the building components and the internal air temperature and humidity values, per hour. From these values some parameters are calculated useful to evaluate the building thermal behaviour: Temperature Humidity Index, duration of the exposure to heat stress, possibility of recovering by nocturnal refreshment, benefit from mechanical ventilation or evaporative cooling. The application to three study cases (a piggery, a veal barn and a shelter for cows) is presented and the possibility of improving the building design and management pointed out.