Click on “Download PDF” for the PDF version or on the title for the HTML version.


If you are not an ASABE member or if your employer has not arranged for access to the full-text, Click here for options.

CFD Simulation of Gas Mixing for Evaluation of Design Alternatives for On-Farm Mass Depopulation of Swine in a Disease Emergency

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  2012 Dallas, Texas, July 29 - August 1, 2012  121338237.(doi:10.13031/2013.41889)
Authors:   Larry F Stikeleather, W E.M Morrow, Robert E Meyer, C L Baird, B V Halbert
Keywords:   Keywords: Computational Fluid Dynamics, CFD, simulation, gas mixing, CO2, swine, disease emergency, mass-depopulation

In the event of a foreign animal disease outbreak in the United States, a rapid and humane method for on-farm swine depopulation will be required. Given the extraordinary number of animals involved, and the design of currently used swine confinement buildings, methods relying on the handling and restraint of individual animals will prove much too slow to stem the spread of disease. For example in the case of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), infected animals are to be humanely euthanized and disposed of within 24 hours of diagnosis to limit viral replication and subsequent disease spread, and all susceptible animals on adjacent farms within a specified radius are to be humanely euthanized and disposed of within 48 hours. Implementation of such emergency methods will require proactive establishment of protocols ensuring humane conditions while conserving resources and protecting personnel. Hence the objective of the current project is to identify, evaluate, and disseminate efficient practical methods to mass depopulate swine on farms in a local, regional, or national emergency. This involves evaluating the application of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) supplied by a bulk liquid CO2 tanker trucks as well as the possibility of generating CO2 on-site such as from locally purchased dry ice. In this effort, the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has proved to be a very powerful tool for evaluating transient CO2 concentrations during wash-in and wash-out of the euthanization chambers. Also CFD has been used to evaluate the need for plenums for CO2 distribution and the effect on CO2 distribution within the chambers including stratification due to CO2 density. The CFD simulation method involved the following general procedure.

(Download PDF)    (Export to EndNotes)