Research Data Leeds Repository

Data associated with 'Are Man-Made Hives valid thermal surrogates for natural Honey Bee nests (Apis mellifera)'

Mitchell, Derek Morville (2023) Data associated with 'Are Man-Made Hives valid thermal surrogates for natural Honey Bee nests (Apis mellifera)'. University of Leeds. [Dataset] https://doi.org/10.5518/1359

Dataset description

Honey bees evolved to occupy thick walled tall narrow tree cavities and attach their combs directly to nest wall leaving periodic comb gaps (peripheral galleries). However, academic research and beekeeping are conducted in squat man made hives, with a continuous gap (bee space) between the combs and the walls and roof. Utilising honey bee occupied synthetic tree nests, this research has determined the average size of tree peripheral galleries, then with computational fluid mechanics (CFD) models of conjugate heat transfer of complete nests of trees and thin walled man made hives, compared the thermal impacts of comb gaps and vertical movement of the thermoregulated brood area. This shows their heat transfer regimes are markedly different, including: bee space above combs increases heat loss by ~70%; hives when compared to tree nests, require at least 150% the density of honey bees to arrest convection across the brood area and the larger vertical freedom of tree cavities can not only increase thermal resistance, but can make clustering redundant. The magnitude and scope of these differences suggest that some hive based research is more anthropogenic than natural, and that some bee keeping practices are clearly sub-optimal

Keywords:

Apis Mellifera, CFD, Themofluid

Subjects:

H000 - Engineering > H300 - Mechanical engineering > H310 - Dynamics > H311 - Thermodynamics

Divisions:

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences > School of Mechanical Engineering

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