AN OBJECT-ORIENTED GREENHOUSE SIMULATION SOFTWARE SYSTEM .2. DESCRIPTION, VALIDATION AND USE OF A SIMPLE-MODEL

A simple model of greenhouse heat and mass exchanges was written in th e Smalltalk object-oriented programming language and was integrated in to a general greenhouse climate control and management software system (GX). The structure, operation and performance of the heat and mass e xchange simulation subsystem is described and sample results of its us e are given. The results show that the GX simulator can emulate the be havior of the greenhouse ecosystem and of its climate control system. Hence, by using the GX simulation subsystem, the results from a simula tion using one control strategy can be compared to results from a simu lation run with a different strategy. One can then determine the poten tial savings in terms of energy or other inputs (CO2, water, etc.) ass ociated with the use of a given strategy. The GX-based simulator has s hown potential for both teaching and research applications.