Temperature Distribution and Vertical Stratification near Side-Wall Inlets of Stacked Cage Broiler Houses in Winter.
- 1Institute of Animal Husbandry, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, China.
- 2Henan Key Laboratory of Animal Breeding and Nutritional Regulation, Zhengzhou 450002, China.
Abstract
Inlet design assumes that supply air from side-wall inlets mixes with house air over several metres, but whether this holds in a densely caged multi-tier house, where cages and birds obstruct the jet, is untested. The bird-zone environment of a commercial stacked-cage house was measured with 24 in-cage sensors at three distances and two tiers over ten winter days. Three of four groups showed no resolvable cooling gradient at 1.5 m; only one north-side group cooled with distance, strengthening with ventilation (0.30 K per percent, R² = 0.39), while another showed the opposite sign. Every fitted decay coefficient (αdh=0 to 0.004) lay below the free-jet design range (0.01-0.03), by five or more times over the window. Vertical stratification of 0.78 K dominated (side × tier p<0.001): the upper tier was up to 2.4 K warmer on the north side, while the south-side tiers differed by under 0.5 K. Shading nets lowered north-side inlet temperature by 0.80 K but warmed the south side. The practical consequence is that the thermal environment is organised by tier and side rather than by near-inlet distance, so monitoring, control and welfare-oriented assessment should target tiers and sides.
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BibTeX
@article{wei2026temperature,
title = {{Temperature Distribution and Vertical Stratification near Side-Wall Inlets of Stacked Cage Broiler Houses in Winter.}},
author = {Yongxiang Wei and Wenjia Li and Quanyou Sun and Shaoyu Li and Bin Xu},
journal = {Veterinary sciences},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/vetsci13101103},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42944197},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Temperature Distribution and Vertical Stratification near Side-Wall Inlets of Stacked Cage Broiler Houses in Winter.
AU - Yongxiang Wei
AU - Wenjia Li
AU - Quanyou Sun
AU - Shaoyu Li
AU - Bin Xu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/16
JO - Veterinary sciences
DO - 10.3390/vetsci13101103
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42944197
AB - Inlet design assumes that supply air from side-wall inlets mixes with house air over several metres, but whether this holds in a densely caged multi-tier house, where cages and birds obstruct the jet, is untested. The bird-zone environment of a commercial stacked-cage house was measured with 24 in-cage sensors at three distances and two tiers over ten winter days. Three of four groups showed no resolvable cooling gradient at 1.5 m; only one north-side group cooled with distance, strengthening with ventilation (0.30 K per percent, R² = 0.39), while another showed the opposite sign. Every fitted decay coefficient (αdh=0 to 0.004) lay below the free-jet design range (0.01-0.03), by five or more times over the window. Vertical stratification of 0.78 K dominated (side × tier p<0.001): the upper tier was up to 2.4 K warmer on the north side, while the south-side tiers differed by under 0.5 K. Shading nets lowered north-side inlet temperature by 0.80 K but warmed the south side. The practical consequence is that the thermal environment is organised by tier and side rather than by near-inlet distance, so monitoring, control and welfare-oriented assessment should target tiers and sides.
SN - 2306-7381
ER -