J. agric. Engng Res. (1995) 60, 43-48 Airflow Indicators for Mushroom Houses K. M. Lomax; $. Gottfried; H. Lavelle Delaware Agricultural Experime Station” Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Delaware Newark, DE 19717, US.A. (Received 19 July 1993; acceped in revised form 24 May 1994) Airflow indicators for low velocities were developed for the multilevel beds/shelves in a mushroom housc. ‘The indicators are strips of lightweight plastic about 2Sem wide 1Sem long that are attached to a vertical pin. These flags pivot to indicate direction of airflow. The horizontal displacement of the tip, for a given type of plastic material, is highly correlated with the horizontal airflow speed. One type of plastic provided a response range of 5 to 40cm/s. Airflow patterns observed in mushroom houses using the indicators showed that some growing surfaces have Jess than Sem/s air movement. Locations in a given house where there was no detectable airflow, corre. lated with problems in crop production. 1. Introduction Electronic instruments for air speed measurement such as hot-wire anemometers provide an accurate indication of velocity at one point. To measure air speed at multiple locations, such as the six levels in a mushroom house, an investigator would require many anemometer sensors or would have to move one sensor to the many locations, Electronic sensors for concurrent measurements in more than a 100 spots would be expensive. The transport of one sensor to many locations would cause a significant time variable between readings. A large number of very inexpensive sensors could be placed in multiple locations and be ead manually within a few minutes for nearly concur: rent readings. Visual observations of airflow patterns can also be made using smoke, Smoke, however, would not be good for growing mushrooms. Another + Published as Miscellaneous Paper No. 1497 of the Delaware Agricultural Experiment Staion. Parl support for this project was provided by the Vegetable Laboratory, United States Department ‘of Agriculture Paper presented at Ag Eng 92, Uppesia, Sweden, 1-8 June, 1992 ‘0021 -8634/95 010043 + 06 $08,00/0, problem with smoke is that it shows patterns for only a short while until the smoke is diluted and dispersed. ‘Wind causes lifting of a hanging flexible object such as a waving flag. For @ given size flag, a lighter material will be lifted higher than a heavier material, Likewise, for a given flag, the angle or height of lift will be related to the horizontal velocity of the air past that spot. Vane meters make use of this phenomenon.' For airflow that is not horizontal, the angle of the flag would be a function of both air speed and the rising or falling component of the airflow. In a mushroom house, however, the air movement across each bed surface is constrained to be horizontal because the bed levels are 0-20 to 0-30m apart and 1-8m wide, Air velocity is important for mushroom production for several reasons. In a mushroom growing facility, such as the traditional Pennsylvania “double” for Agaricus bisporous (Lange) Imbach, ait exchange is needed for different stages of the production cycle. These stages are aerobic composting (Phase II), rapid mycelium growth, and sporophore formation. Air exchange delivers oxygen and carries away heat, carbon dioxide and transpired moisture. ‘When the sporophore, edible “mushroom”, is al- most ready for harvest, the air humidity and velocity are critical to a top-quality product. Edwards* suggested that a coefficient of evaporation be used to describe the influence of the air on drying the surface of the mushroom. His coefficient of evaporation was determined by multiplying the air velocity in m/min times the water vapour pressure deficit in millibars to obtain an index. Bowman? summarized Edwards’ information by stating that the goal for this index is a range between 4 and 10mbar m/min. Values of the index outside this range cause either excessive drying of the mushroom cap (index too high), or damp cap surfaces conducive to bacterial bloteh (index too low). Bowman? also showed that in mushroom cropping, houses in England, there could be a significant varia- tion in the velocity distribution within a given house. © 1995 Sitioe Research Institute44 K.M. LOMAK ET AL. He measured air velocities across the beds/trays that ranged from 6 to 44cm/s. The specific objectives of this research were (1) to develop and calibrate inexpensive airflow indicators for use in mushroom houses, and (2) to observe airflow patterns in mushroom houses, and evaluate the uniformity of air distribution. 2, Materials and methods Several different materials for airflow indicators were considered according to the following criteria: inexpensive, resistant to moisture changes, resistant t0 static electricity, and responsive in the range of airflow desired for mushrooms. Two materials were found most useful. A high-density plastic material, design- ated PNI-2410 by the Mobil Chemical Co., 0-058 mm. thick, was obtained in the form of a trash can liner and then cut to the test dimensions. The second material was plastic ribbon, available as surveyor’s flagging tape, 0-13mm thick. Other materials that were tested included polyethylene cut from a food storage bag, and thin film used to cover the frame of ultra-light model airplanes. ‘The simple design for the airflow indicator is shown in Fig. 1. A strip of flexible, thin plastic film (D) was glued at one end to a stiff piece of plastic (B). The stiff plastic was drilled in the centre and a stainless steel sewing pin (A) was placed through the drilled hole. This pin was pushed into the blunt end of a wooden dowel (C), 6mm diameter, 30cm Jong. The other end of the dowel was sharpened for inserting in the Fig, 1. Design of airflow indicator. Stainless steel pin (A); {uff plastic (B) 1 x8 X25 mm: wooden dowel (C); indicator strip (D) 25 X15 em; indicator wrapped around and glued « mushroom bed. When the dowel was positioned vertically, the stiff plastic piece remained horizontal, and the flexible strip was free to pivot in a full circle. A small wind tunnel, 12m long, was modified to provide a controlled aitflow in a 25emx 30cm rec- tangular duct. A variable speed drill was used to drive the centrifugal blower, 30cm diameter by 25cm, with backward curved blades. Air speed was varied both by changing the speed of the blower and by reducing the area of the inlet. The ait speed at the pivot point of the indicator under test was measured with an anemo- meter, Kurtz Instruments Model 1440 Digital Air Velocity meter. This unit was calibrated and re- ferenced to a standard by the manufacturer. ‘The lightweight material was tested at three different widths: 13cm, 1-9¢m, and 2:5em, The ength was constant at 15cm. The surveyor's flagging tape was tested also in 15cm lengths at @ width, as purchased, of 2-Sem. The fan speed was varied for each test to achieve about ten different velocities within the response range. The lift or outward deflec- tion of the plastic strip was measured as the horizontal distance from the pivot pin to the tip of the strip. An arc-shaped scale, placed downwind just beyond the arc of the tip, assisted with the visual observation of horizontal deflection in units of inches (Fig. 2). 3. Results and discussion 3.1, Unsatisfactory materials Two of the materials were found undesirable for different reasons. The very thin film for covering penny-weight model airplanes would not release a static charge. Static electricity caused the strip to cling to the vertical post rather than hanging freely and responding to low airflows. Polyethylene, from a food Fig. 2. Horizontal deflection (inch) of airflow indicator by controlled airflow, measured with anemometerAIR FLOW INDICATORS FOR MUSHROOM HOUSES 45 storage bag, retained a curl from its shape in the retail box. A strip with a shape other than perfectly fla, ic. curled or twisted, was found to retain that shape. ‘These deformities caused unpredictable responses to air speed. Also, the polyethylene tested had a res- ponse range that was too high for use on mushroom beds. 3.2. Directional response For the lowest airflows of 7 to 10em/s, the light- weight indicator was pushed against the post and did not move around to the other side of the vertical support. To assist with the directional response under these conditions, a secondary pivot arm was de- veloped, but was found to add too much cost to the units.for a mushroom house. Since the visual measu- rement system for airflow indicators in a mushroom house already requires a person close enough to read the deffection and direction, the strip can be moved by hand to help it pivot to the correct direction. 3.3. Response range for velocity Each type of material and cach width had a minimum velocity requirement before the strip would move from its hanging position. There was a useful range of air speed from the minimum to an upper limit where the strip was essentially horizontal. Exces- sive velocities merely caused fluttering in the straight- ‘out position. This useful range was called the response Table 1 Response range and regression slope (horizontal deflection/air velocity) for airflow indicators. (length 15 cm, tweight film thickness 0-O0S8 mm, surveyor's flag thick= ness 0-13 mm) Response Regression ‘Material and range, slope, widih, om com/s mm per ems Lightweight : film, 1-3om St050 2x Lightweight . film, 1-9 em fost td Lightweight film, 2S em eae on Surveyor’s fagsing 40 to 160, oor Note: Different superscripts indicate significant differences, at the 0001 level. range and is shown in Table 1. The most useful strip for low velocities was the 25cm wide lightweight plastic, which had a response range from 5 to 40 cm/s. 3.4, Statistical analysis of velocity data Within the response range of an indicator, a linear regression analysis was used to evaluate the velocity data for each strip. Velocity was the independent variable because it was controlled in the wind tunnel and horizontal deflection was the dependent variable. Linear regression analysis showed an R? of 0-99 for each of the indicators tested. An analysis of variance was performed on the slope data to measure (a) the uniformity of replicate strips and (b) the differences in response as a function of the width of the strip. The analysis showed that there was no statistical difference between any of the replicate strips of a given width For the lightweight material, there was no significant difference between the 1:3 and 1-9cm widths (Table ». ‘There was, however, a significant difference at the 0-001 level between the 1-9¢m strips and the 2:5 em strips. The regression line slope for the widest strip was 30mm of horizontal deflection per cm/s of velocity change. By comparison, the slope for the 1-9cm wide strip was 23mm per cm/s. Fig. 3 shows the data and linear regression slopes for two different widths of the lightweight material. Fig. 4 shows the response for heavier material, the surveyor’s flagging. The 2-5cm lightweight film was considered most useful for the mushroom beds because it had an upper limit appropriate for mushrooms and a steeper res- ponse, A steeper slope provided more deflection change so that within the limits of visual estimation, 0 6 Ey 300 Alrvelocity cms Fig. 3. Calibration response for lightweight plastic: D, width of Dem; 4, width of 25m