Development of a Heat Transfer Model for Plant Tissue Culture Vessels

Air temperature within culture vessels is a dominant factor influencing the growth of plantlets. A heat transfer model for tissue culture vessels was developed in this study. The heat source for vessels was irradiance from fluorescent tubes. The energy transfer included convective and radiative heat exchanges. In order to validate the model, two types of culture vessels were studied at various light radiation levels. Type-T thermocouples connected to a data logger were used to measure temperatures. The discrepancies between the values predicted by the model and actual measurement values were less than 0·6°C, and the average absolute error was lower than 0·4°C. Increasing the surface convection coefficient by increasing ventilation velocity could effectively reduce the greenhouse effect in these small size culture vessels.