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Effect of Aging on the Spectral Radiative Properties of Plastic Film-Covered Greenhouse under Arid Conditions

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Abstract

Plastic films are widely used to cover greenhouses in arid regions. Unlike predicting the total radiative properties of films, predicting the deterioration behavior of the spectral radiative properties is quite difficult during the service life of the films. These properties should be of great interest for crop morphogenesis studies. This study was to investigate the degradation behavior of spectral transmittance, \( \tau_{\lambda } \), and reflectance, \( \rho_{\lambda } \) (in the solar spectrum range), of a 200 µm thick, LDPE film-covered greenhouse model that was exposed for 1 year to an arid climate. Every 30 days, \( \tau_{\lambda } \) and \( \rho_{\lambda } \) were measured for six samples taken from the six surfaces of the greenhouse cover and averaged to obtain the cover properties. Based on the collected data, nonlinear correlations (each as a function of the wavelength, λ, and the exposure time, t) were obtained to predict \( \tau_{\lambda } \) and \( \rho_{\lambda } \) at any time during the service life of the cover under such climatic conditions. Results showed that 1 year exposure drastically reduced the spectral and total transmittance of the cover film to global and PAR solar radiation by about 32 % and increased the spectral and total reflectance by about 19 % compared to new film. Degradation of the radiative properties of the film did not affect the light quality or the transmission ratios of light into the greenhouse. The transmitted PAR was reduced from 115 W·m−2 to 27 W·m−2 after 1 year exposure.

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Abbreviations

AT max :

Maximum air temperature (oC)

AT min :

Minimum air temperature (oC)

B/R:

Blue-to-red light ratio (-)

CSI:

Cumulative solar irradiance (MJ m−2)

FR:

Far-red light (700–800 nm)

NIR:

Near infrared radiation (700–1100 nm)

PAR:

Photosynthetically active radiation (400–700 nm)

PAR/NIR:

Photosynthetically active radiation to near infrared ratio (–)

R :

Total reflectance of the cover film to solar radiation (%)

R PAR :

Total reflectance of the cover film to PAR (%)

R/FR:

Red-to-far-red light ratio (–)

Sλ :

Spectral solar irradiance on the ground level (W·m−2·nm−1)

T :

Total transmittance of the cover film to global solar radiation (%)

T PAR :

Total transmittance of the cover film to PAR (%)

t :

Exposure time (day)

\( \rho_{\lambda } \) :

Spectral reflectance of the film sample to solar radiation (%)

\( \bar{\rho }_{\lambda } \) :

Spectral reflectance of the cover film to solar radiation (%)

\( \tau_{\lambda } \) :

Spectral transmittance of the film sample to solar radiation (%)

\( \bar{\tau }_{\lambda } \) :

Spectral transmittance of the cover film to solar radiation (%)

\( \bar{\tau }_{\lambda ,PAR} \) :

Spectral transmittance of the cover film to PAR (%)

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Acknowledgement

The authors are deeply grateful to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for its funding of this research through the research group no. RG-1435-074.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Engineering, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P O box 2460, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

    A. M. Abdel-Ghany, I. M. Al-Helal & M. R. Shady

  2. Department of Energy (Energy Centre), Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, MP, 462003, India

    Anil Kumar

  3. Department of Plant Production, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P O box 2460, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

    A. A. Alsadon & A. A. Ibrahim

Authors
  1. A. M. Abdel-Ghany
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  2. I. M. Al-Helal
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  3. Anil Kumar
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  4. A. A. Alsadon
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  5. M. R. Shady
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  6. A. A. Ibrahim
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Correspondence to A. M. Abdel-Ghany.

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Abdel-Ghany, A.M., Al-Helal, I.M., Kumar, A. et al. Effect of Aging on the Spectral Radiative Properties of Plastic Film-Covered Greenhouse under Arid Conditions. Int J Thermophys 39, 115 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10765-018-2434-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10765-018-2434-8

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