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Ventilation and ventilation system have a direct effect on the thermal environment and contaminant distribution in an animal building. The objectives of this research are to investigate the thermal environment and the contaminant transport in a mechanically ventilated swine building and to study the correlation of contaminant transport and airflow in the building. Two important thermal environment parameters, temperature and velocity, and the dust mass concentration were measured at multiple points in a typical pig building.

The measured velocity distribution showed relatively lower velocity in animal zone (< 0.5 m/s). There was a local stale zone located under inlet air jet, which had less air exchange with surrounding zones. The temperature distribution was more uniform than air velocity with a cold draft in the inlet side. This study showed that the improper location of thermostat could cause the exhaust fans to stay on even if the temperature in most of the room was below the set point temperature.

The measurement of dust mass concentrations within the building revealed high spatial variation. The dust spatial distribution was similar to the airflow pattern and showed a very close correlation between the dust concentration and the airflow pattern. It appears that the ventilation system has a direct effect on the dust spatial distribution. These results are useful to design a better ventilation system to keep the animals comfortable and performing well by providing optimal thermal environment and improving the ventilation effectiveness.