A computational analysis of a fully-stocked dual-mode ventilated livestock vehicle during ferry transportation

Concerns relating to animal transport in general, and specifically to the thermal conditions to which animals are exposed, have led to the development and implementation of regulations, legislations and codes of practice in a number of countries seeking to impose limits on journey times, stocking densities and thermal conditions inside the transport space of vehicles. In the current study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to analyse the influence of a wind-free environment, such as that presented when the vehicle is transported on the car-deck of a RO-RO ferry, on the ventilated performance of livestock transport vehicle. The livestock transporter under investigation had two decks, the top deck of which was naturally ventilated container and its lower deck was mechanically ventilated container. Using CFD the level of environmental heterogeneity was studied in both the mechanically and naturally ventilated decks. It was found that the naturally ventilated container was hotter and more humid than the mechanically ventilated container. However, the environmental variables were much more evenly distributed in the naturally ventilated container.