PA—Precision Agriculture: Agricultural Sprays in Cross-flow and Drift

The droplet size and velocity characteristics of an agricultural spray were studied in a wind tunnel in the presence of a non-uniform cross-flow. The spray was generated at three nozzle-operating pressures. The droplet size and velocity was measured in both the cross-flow direction and the vertical direction using a phase Doppler particle analyser. From the size–velocity measurements, it was found that many droplets immediately behind the spray sheet were found to be travelling in a direction opposite to the cross-flow. Further away from the nozzle, some small droplets had a velocity directed upwards. A size–velocity correlation factor was adopted to discuss the potential drift of the droplets. For the lower pressure, at a distance of 100 mm below the nozzle exit, the droplets are prone to drift at all downstream locations. At the higher pressure, the droplets are prone to drift beyond a distance ratio (x/z) of two. Here, x is the distance in the cross-flow direction and z is the vertical distance below the nozzle exit. The behaviour of droplets of two particular size classes (∼38 and 70 μm) were also investigated and found that the smaller droplets were subjected to an increased cross-flow effect.