Development of an open-source integrated workflow for airflow simulation and virtual reality visualisation in mushroom cultivation facilities

Effective ventilation is critical for maintaining a stable, uniform microclimate in large enclosed mushroom fruiting rooms, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) provides an economical and convenient approach for analysing and optimising airflow distribution. This study proposes an integrated CFD simulation and virtual reality (VR) visualisation workflow based on open-source software, including Blender, OpenFOAM, and ParaView, to enable immersive analysis of airflow characteristics in mushroom fruiting rooms. An operational industrial-scale fruiting room was used to validate the simulation feasibility. Four modified ventilation configurations were designed and simulated to examine the effects of baffle structures and inlet–outlet arrangements under high-density planting conditions. The CFD pre-processing model was refined by incorporating detailed structural features, and airflow contours, streamlines, and vector fields were integrated into a VR-supported indoor visualisation environment. The simulated temperature showed good agreement with measurements, while the velocity field reproduced the measured spatial trends. The results indicate that increasing airflow rate, modifying baffle structures, or altering the jet direction of upper circulation fans can locally enhance airflow velocity or improve uniformity in specific regions of the mushroom canopy; however, none of these measures alone can comprehensively and uniformly improve overall airflow conditions without directly supplying air to the growing area. A Blender plugin was also developed to facilitate airflow visualisation by importing OpenFOAM results via ParaView. This workflow facilitates intuitive inspection of airflow conditions in complex multi-layer cultivation systems and provides a practical and flexible approach for evaluating ventilation strategies in mushroom fruiting rooms.