Assessing Airflow and Temperature Distribution in a Geodesic Dome Greenhouse Under Different Ventilation Configurations: A Computational Fluid Dynamics Study

Geodesic dome greenhouses have attracted growing interest as alternative structures for sustainable crop production, as their curved structures provide advantages while creating distinct internal airflow characteristics. This geometry also alters internal air movement and temperature distribution relative to conventional greenhouses, yet quantitative information on airflow recirculation, stagnant-zone formation, and thermal stratification in full-scale geodesic dome greenhouses remains limited. To address this gap, this study combined field measurements with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to characterize these geometry-specific airflow and thermal behaviors and to quantify the relative contributions of buoyancy and forced convection. Three operational ventilation configurations were evaluated: mechanical ventilation with an open-air inlet, mechanical ventilation with supply fans, and mechanical ventilation with both an open-air inlet and supply fans (combined ventilation). A 4V icosahedron dome greenhouse in South Bend, IN, USA, served as the reference structure. Spatial comparisons under the open-inlet configuration showed reasonable agreement between the simulated and measured temperature and air velocity data, with coefficients of determination of 0.905 for temperature and 0.920 for velocity. Under all three configurations, the air formed recirculating flow patterns, but stagnant regions still appeared near the upper dome and by the inlet vents. At canopy level, combined ventilation produced the smallest stagnant zone at 12.67%, against 14.63% for open-inlet ventilation and 16.75% for supply-fan ventilation. Open-inlet ventilation lowered the overall greenhouse temperature more than supply-fan ventilation (24.54 ± 0.69 °C versus 26.17 ± 0.58 °C), while combined ventilation held a similar average temperature (24.55 ± 0.43 °C) with a more uniform distribution. The Richardson number indicated that open-inlet ventilation was more strongly influenced by buoyancy (Ri = 1.05), whereas combined ventilation was governed mainly by forced convection (Ri = 0.17). These findings provide a quantitative characterization of airflow recirculation, stagnant regions, thermal stratification, and buoyancy–forced-convection interactions in the investigated full-scale geodesic dome greenhouse, providing a basis for geometry-specific ventilation assessment and design.