Comparative Analysis of the Filling Mass of Vertical Heat Exchanger Tubes on the Thermal Environment of Arched Greenhouses

The greenhouse’s energy consumption is a major limiting factor for output and development. To address this, it is necessary to adopt green and low-carbon heating technologies to replace traditional fuels. This will not only help conserve energy but will also reduce emissions, thereby improving the thermal environmental conditions for agriculture. This paper aims to research and develop a vertical heat exchange tube array device specifically designed for greenhouses. The focus is on enhancing the passive heat absorption and heat storage efficiency of the device and its influence on the thermal environment of the greenhouse. In order to improve the heat absorption and storage efficiency of the heat exchanger device and its impact on the greenhouse thermal environment, experimental comparative analysis was conducted using air, water, and phase-change materials as working fluids inside the pipes. Through a combination of experiments and simulations, it was verified that the heat exchanger device is capable of actively regulating the greenhouse thermal environment. The results show that heat exchangers of all three types of working fluids can effectively improve the stability of soil temperature and play a “shifting the peak and filling the valley” role in regulating the indoor air temperature while positively regulating the relative humidity of the air. Notably, when the working fluid is a phase-change material, it has the most significant impact on the thermal environment of the greenhouse.