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For a greenhouse thermal analysis, it is essential to know the energy partition and the amount of solar and thermal radiation converted into sensible and latent heat in the greenhouse. Factors that are frequently needed are: efficiency of utilization of incident solar radiation (pi), and sensible and latent heat factors (eta and delta). Previous studies considered these factors as constant parameters. However, they depend on the environmental conditions inside and outside the greenhouse, plants and soil characteristics, and structure, orientation and location of the greenhouse. Moreover, these factors have not yet been evaluated under the arid climatic conditions of the Arabian Peninsula.

In this study, simple energy balance equations were applied to investigate mu, eta and delta; energy partitioning among the greenhouse components; and conversion of solar and thermal radiation into sensible and latent heat. For this study, we used an evaporatively cooled, planted greenhouse with a floor area of 48 m(2). The parameters required for the analysis were measured on a sunny, hot summer day. The results showed that value of pi was almost constant (congruent to 0.75); whereas the values of eta and delta strongly depended on the net radiation over the canopy (R(na)); and could be represented by exponential decay functions of R(na).

At a plant density corresponding to a leaf area index (LAI) of 3 and an integrated incident solar energy of 27.7 MJ m(-2) d(-1), the solar and thermal radiation utilized by the greenhouse components were 20.7 MJ m(-2) d(-1) and 3.74 MJ m(-2) d(-1), respectively. About 71% of the utilized radiation was converted to sensible heat and 29% was converted to latent heat absorbed by the inside air. Contributions of the floor, cover and plant surfaces on the sensible heat of the inside air were 38.6%, 48.2% and 13.2%, respectively. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.