Keseragaman suhu udara dan larutan nutrisi pada Berbagai Jarak Antar Nozzle untuk Aeroponic Chamber

Abstract

Aeroponics is a method for growing plants in a spraying system of nutrient solution to plants roots in a mist fogging in a closed environment. There is no enough data concerning uniformity of nozzle spacings in order to get the best nutrient solution spraying, based on uniformity of some parameters such as pressure, velocity and air temperature. Those parameters can be simulated by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software. The objective of this research is to determine the best spraying design of aeroponics system because the spraying will interacts with roots directly. Research steps were aeroponic system installation, air temperature measurement, spraying velocity and pressure measurement. Simulation has been done by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for three nozzle spacings. The nozzle spacings were 30 cm, 40 cm and 50 cm. The results showed that optimum nozzle spacing was 40 cm (using three nozzles) and 50 cm (using two nozzles). Validation has been conducted for nozzle spacing of 40 cm. The regression equation for measured (x) and simulated (y) air temperature was y = 1.603x - 1.67, with a high coefficient of determination (R2 was 0.972). It has been shown that the predicted temperature of nutrient solution agreed well with that of the measured temperatures.