CFD assessment of thermal comfort in three typical naturally ventilated swine fattening facilities in tropical climate

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been increasingly utilized for designing facilities for animal production. The aim of this research was to assess the thermal comfort of three different types of commercial fattening pig housing with natural ventilation, which are typ-ical in some tropical countries and are located on different thermal floors (cold, mild, and warm). The modeling conducted for each facility was validated via normalized mean square error (NMSE) values below 0.25 for variables such as velocity (V), relative humidity (RH) and the temperature humidity index (THI). The THI of Farm I, which is located in a warm climate, presented THI values greater than 79 for more than 90% of all the structures, which is why, in a dangerous situation, Farm II presented a THI of 82 in almost all the fa-cilities, which is classified as a facility in an almost emergency state, and Farm III, which is located in a cold climate at some specific points inside of facilities, reached a THI of 73, which represents zones with moderately uncomfortable temperatures. The results of the fluid thermal parameters obtained will improve the design of each of the three facilities located in cold, mild and warm climates to reduce the thermal stress and improve the productivity and profitability of the producers.