Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling and Predicting Environmental Conditions in a Poultry Incubator

Environmental conditions of a poultry incubator impact chick embryo development and pathogen survivability and spread. The current practices of monitoring and control based on limited sensor locations inside an incubator gives incomplete knowledge of the overall spatiotemporal distributions of important environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide. To better understand the environmental conditions inside an incubator, we have developed a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to predict air ventilation patterns and scalar transport in a small-scale commercial incubator with two egg racks (1620 eggs total) over an incubation period of 18 days. Various modeling approaches were investigated to identify a cost-effective numerical model to efficiently perform long time duration simulations to generate reliable environmental data distributions. The CFD model was validated using experimental sensors at four interior locations measuring temperature, humidity, and CO2. The CFD model compared within 12% of the experimental data for velocity, temperature and CO2 accumulation predictions, but showed higher 37% error for relative humidity. The limitation in temperature predictions were attributed to modeling challenges of heat generation by the eggs, and for relative humidity because of the negligence of intermittent water spray. Overall, this research demonstrates the potential of CFD in accurately predicting complex biological spatiotemporal gradients of relevant environmental factors in a poultry incubator.