Determination of the cooling efficiency and temperature drop of the fan-pad evoporative cooling system in a broiler house in Cukurova region

The Çukurova region is situated in the subtropical climate belt. Therefore, temperatures in structures such as greenhouses and poultry houses rise above 30 °C in the summer months. This temperature increase creates a heat stress on the living production material. In order to prevent this stress evaporative pad cooling systems have been widely employed in recent years. In these cooling systems two types of pads consisting of cellulose and cement are in use. However, there is not sufficient data on the functional properties of these materials under the conditions of our country. In this work, some functional properties of the pads used in evaporative cooling systems in poultry houses in the Çukurova region were investigated. The measured air flow rate through the pads was 1,41 m/s. The cooling system in the poultry house has been operated, depending on the temperature requirements of chicks, nearly two weeks after their placement. Both air flow and relative humidity measurements were made before and after the pads at positions directly and diagonally opposite at each working point. According to the measurements made July through August period the cooling efficiency, temperature drop and saturation level of the air which passes through the pad were 71,25 %, 4,99 °C and 85,95 %, respectively. Key Words: Evaporative cooling, pad, heat stress, cooling efficiency