Ventilation of Agricultural Structures

Dear Colleagues:

The costs of agricultural structures and energy continue to increase alongside the demand for ventilation of agricultural structures. Among the drivers of the increased ventilation demands in agricultural structures are rising global temperatures, greater heat production per unit mass by the more recent genetic lines of livestock, increased marketing weights, increased stocking or planting densities, and greater consumer interest in animal welfare. Hence, there is a need to optimize ventilation rates and strategies that balance economics with performance and animal welfare. Original research on mechanical and natural ventilation in agricultural production facilities—such as livestock and aquaculture barns and greenhouses—is welcomed in this Special Issue. Although ventilation of agricultural structures is covered in other journals, we seek to provide comprehensive coverage of this important topic in a single issue.  Consequently, we hope that this Special Issue will provide knowledge sharing and cooperation among ventilation professionals working in different agricultural disciplines.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Ventilation impacts on indoor air quality (e.g., temperature, gases) and/or performance (or production) and livestock welfare;
• Comparison of ventilation needs and strategies affected by livestock genetic lines;
• Innovative structural design to improve ventilation
• Numerical model development and application to ventilation problems;
• Case studies on validated ventilation strategies;
• Application of novel measurement techniques to ventilation;
• Energy use in ventilation.

This Special Issue will publish original research (including case studies) and invited review papers, excluding studies focused on pollutant emissions and statistical modeling. Review papers will only be accepted by invitation of the Guest Editor; interested researchers should submit an outline of the review paper (including justification) and a short CV to the Guest Editor.

Prof. Sanjay B. Shah
Assist. Prof. Suzanne Leonard
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. AgriEngineering is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• livestock
• poultry
• greenhouse
• mechanical
• natural
• CFD
• energy use
• renewable