Study on the Influence of Velocity, Turbulence Intensity and Temperature on Ammonia Emission Rate in a Wind Tunnel

Odor emissions from manure in livestock buildings are an important issue which concerns the human health and air quality as well as animals. Ammonia is one of the most important odors in pig houses. The objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of local velocity, turbulence intensity and temperature on the ammonia emission rate. The experiments are conducted in a wind tunnel which is used to simulate the boundary layer of the flow above the slurry. The results show that the emission rate of ammonia increases with increasing velocity and turbulence intensity as expected. The results also show that decreasing the temperature of ammonia aqueous solution decreases the ammonia emission rate dramatically, but the emission rate is more sensitive to the change of temperature at higher compared to lower temperature range. The mass transfer coefficient is inversely proportional with the Reynolds number and also inversely proportional with the Archimedes number. Key word: ammonia emission rate, velocity, turbulence intensity, temperature.