Over the past century livestock housing facilities have evolved from
traditional wooden barns to engineered structures made of plastic and steel. Although
building materials have changed dramatically to match the needs of modern agriculture,
the facility design process continues to lag considerably with farmers and consultants
developing and adapting designs based on rules of thumb and past experience. The
aerospace industry has developed computer models that accurately predict the airflow
and temperature around an aircraft operating under specified conditions. This same
type of computer model has been applied to swine production facilities to predict its
airflow and temperature, but there is a steep learning curve associated with using these
tools.
Virtual Engineering tools interface computational models with hog building
geometry in a virtual reality environment making it possible for a livestock production
specialist (farmer) to use the models and interactively alter the shape, size, operating
conditions, or other characteristics of the components within the proposed system and
see the impact of these changes on his/her production operation. A case study of
Virtual Engineering was performed on a Hoop-Structure swine enclosure and a
mechanically ventilated building. The mechanically ventilated hog building airflow
model was exhibited using Virtual Engineering tools at the Iowa Pork Congress in
January 2004.