Soil steam disinfection (SSD) technology is an effective means of eliminating soil borne diseases. Among the soil cultivation conditions of facility agriculture in the Yangtze River Delta region of China, the clay soil particles (SPs) are fine, the soil pores are small, and the texture is relatively viscous. When injection disinfection technology is applied in the clay soil, the diffusion of steam is hindered and the heating efficiency is substantially affected. To increase the heating efficiency of SSD, we first discretized the continuum model of Philip and De Vries into circular particle porous media of different sizes and random distribution. Then with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation technology, a single-injection steam disinfection model for different SP size conditions was constructed. Furthermore, the diffusion pattern of the macro-porous vapor flow and matrix flow and the corresponding temperature field were simulated and analyzed. Finally, a single-pipe injection steam disinfection verification test was performed for different SP sizes. The test results show that for the clay soil in the Yangtze River Delta region of China, the test temperature filed results are consistent with the simulation results when the heat flow reaches H = 20 cm in the vertical direction, the simulation and test result of the heat flow in the maximum horizontal diffusion distance are L = 13 cm and 12 cm, respectively. At the same disinfection time, the simulated soil temperature change trend is consistent with the test results, and the test temperature is lower than the simulated temperature. The difference between the theoretical temperature and the experimental temperature may be attributed to the heat loss in the experimental device. Further, it is necessary to optimize the CFD simulation process and add the disintegration and deformation processes of soil particle size with the change of water content. Furthermore, the soil pores increase as the SP size increases and that a large amount of steam vertically diffuses along the macropores and accumulates on the soil surface, causing ineffective heat loss. Moreover, soil temperature distribution changes from oval (horizontal short radius/vertical long radius = 0.65) to irregular shape. As the SP size decreases, the soil pore flow path becomes fine; the steam primarily diffuses uniformly around the soil in the form of a matrix flow; the diffusion distance in the horizontal direction gradually increases; and the temperature distribution gradually becomes even, which is consistent with the soil temperature field simulation results. Similar to the energy consumption analysis, the maximum energy consumption for SP sizes>27mm and <2mm was 486and 477kJ, respectively. Therefore, proper pore growth was conducive to the diffusion of steam, but excessive pores cause steam to overflow, which increased energy consumption of the system. Considering that the test was carried out in an ideal soil environment, the rotary tiller must be increased for fine rotary tillage in an actual disinfection operation. Although large particles may appear during the rotary tillage process, an appropriate number of large particles contributes to the formation of a large pore flow, under the common effect of matrix flow, it will simultaneously promote greater steam diffusion and heating efficiency. The above theoretical research has practical guiding significance for improving the design and disinfection effect of soil steam sterilizers in the future.

The proposed system was developed to help the farmers of the Yangtze River Delta to grow greenhouse plants over winter, as the region has very low winter temperatures. For this reason, the experiment was undertaken during winter in extremely low temperatures to obtain optimal results. Keeping in mind the importance of sustainable practices, the authors developed the system using sustainable materials. The system was heated for 6 hours and then the hourly heat transfer rates were measured for 12 hours. The power consumption data of the heating system during different ambient temperatures were collected. Additionally, a simulation model of the heating system was developed using the COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3a package. The heat transfer in a porous media model was used in this study. Finally, the simulation results obtained from the COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3a package were analyzed and compared to the experimental results; these results were found to be in good agreement, thus authenticating the simulation model. After analyzing the data obtained from both methods, the power consumption of the heating system during different ambient temperature conditions were also calculated, which ranged from 15.73 W to 70.02 W in the simulated method and 28.2 W to 91.2 W in the experimental method. It was found that the root zone temperature remained in the range of 0–35 °C. This range of root zone temperature is suitable for many greenhouse horticultural crops such as tomato, cucumber, pepper, strawberry, lettuce, etc. The optimal root zone temperatures of many greenhouse horticultural plants are verified by many researchers.

Soil steam disinfection (SSD) technology is one of the effective means to eliminate soil-borne diseases, especially under the condition of clay-loam soil cultivation for facility agriculture in Yangtze River delta (China). With the fine particles, small pores and high density of the soil, the way of steam transport and heat transfer are quite different from those of other cultivation mediums, and when using SSD injection method, the diffusion of steam between pipes will be affected, inhibiting the heat transfer in the dense soil. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the influence of steam pipe spacing (SPS) on the energy consumption and soil temperature (ST) for clay-loam disinfection. The best results are to find a suitable SPS that satisfies the inter-tube steam that can be gathered together evenly without being lost to the air under limited boiler heating capacity. To this purpose, we first used a computational fluid dynamics model to calculate the effective SPS to inject steam into deep soil. Second, the ST, ST rise rate, ST coefficient of variation, and soil water content variation among different treatments (12, 18, 24, or 30 cm pipe spacing) were analysed. Finally, the heating efficiency of all treatments depending on the disinfection time ratio and relative energy consumption was evaluated. The result shows that in the clay-loam unique to Southern China, the elliptical shape of the high-temperature region obtained from the numerical simulation was basically consistent with the experiment results, and the ratios of short diameter to long diameter were 0.65 and 0.63, respectively. In the SPS = 12 and 18 cm treatments, the steam completely diffused at a 0–20 cm soil layer depth, and the heat transfer was convective. However, at an SPS = 12 cm, steam accumulation occurred at the steam pipe holes, causing excessive accumulation of steam heat. The relative energy consumptions for SPS = 30, 24, and 12 cm were above 2.18 kJ/(kg·°C), and the disinfection time ratio was below 0.8. Thus, under a two-pipe flow rate = 4–8 kg/h, the inter-tube steam was found to be completely concentrated with a uniform continuous high temperature distribution within the soil for an appropriate SPS = 18–22 cm, avoiding the unnecessary loss of steam heat, and this method can be considered for static and moving disinfection operations in the cultivated layer (−20–0 cm) of clay loam soil. However, for soil with higher clay contents, the SPS can be appropriately reduced to less than 18 cm. For soil with lower clay contents and higher sand contents, the SPS can be increased to more than 22 cm.