Design, construction and evaluation of a sprayer drift measurement system

Spray drift study for reducing environmental hazards and protecting crops is of high importance as the pesticides used today are more active and many are non-selective. Drift potential can be restricted by assessing and optimizing equipment design, application parameters, the liquid spray properties, type of formulation and environmental conditions. The aim of this research was to design, construct and assess an intelligent system to determine the level of the spraying drift. The main parts of the system were liquid supply mechanism, pipes and nozzles, a controlled pneumatic system to pressurize the liquid, a nozzle moving system with a controlling panel and a tunnel for wind providing and control. To assess the performance of sprayer and drift of droplets, water sensitive papers were placed in different distances from the nozzle considering different environmental conditions including: wind speed, spraying pressure and height. The evaluation results showed that the drift was increased with increasing of sparing pressure and nozzle height.

[1]  Frank P. Bleier.  Fan Handbook: Selection, Application, and Design , 1997 .

[2]  Justin D. Pereira.  Wind Tunnels:: Aerodynamics, Models and Experiments , 2013 .

[3]  A. Herbst,et al.  DRIFT POTENTIAL FOR LOW PRESSURE EXTERNAL MIXING TWIN FLUID NOZZLES BASED ON WIND TUNNEL MEASURMENTS , 2010 .

[4]  安金梁,et al.  Agricultural pesticide application unmanned aerial vehicle , 2015 .

[5]  A. de Jong,et al.  Spray techniques: how to optimise spray deposition and minimise spray drift , 2008 .

[6]  Bradley K. Fritz,et al.  Wind Tunnel and Field Evaluation of Drift from Aerial Spray Applications with Multiple Spray Formulations , 2012 .

[7]  P. G. Andersen,et al.  Determination of drift potential of different flat fan nozzles on a boom sprayer using a test bench , 2014 .

[8]  L. U. Opara.  Engineering principles of agricultural machines: A.K. Srivastava, C.E. Goering and R.P. Rohrbach (Editors) The American Society of Agricultural Engineers, 1993 (Revised Printing August 1994), Hardback; 601 pp.; $54.00; ISBN 0-929355-33-4 , 1997 .

[9]  J. Pomar,et al.  Variable rate sprayer . Part 1-Orchard prototype : design , 1 implementation and validation 2 , 2022 .

[10]  David Nuyttens,et al.  Spray drift measurements to evaluate the Belgian drift mitigation measures in field crops , 2008 .

[11]  Herman Ramon,et al.  Design optimisation for the vertical suspension of a crop sprayer boom , 2005 .

[12]  Ali Bayat,et al.  An air-assisted spinning disc nozzle and its performance on spray deposition and reduction of drift potential , 2005 .

[13]  P. Balsari,et al.  A test bench for the classification of boom sprayers according to drift risk , 2007 .

[14]  David Nuyttens,et al.  Effect of nozzle type, size and pressure on spray droplet characteristics , 2007 .

[15]  B Huyghebaert,et al.  Comparative performance of recycling tunnel and conventional sprayers using standard and drift-mitigating nozzles in dwarf apple orchards , 2010 .

[16]  Ajit K. Srivastava,et al.  Engineering Principles of Agricultural Machines , 1993 .

[17]  Andrew J Hewitt,et al.  Spray Droplet Size, Drift Potential, and Risks to Nontarget Organisms from Aerially Applied Glyphosate for Coca Control in Colombia , 2009, Journal of toxicology and environmental health. Part A.

[18]  Lai Wah Chan,et al.  Optimization of supercritical fluid extraction and pressurized liquid extraction of active principles from Magnolia officinalis using the Taguchi design , 2010 .

[19]  Joseph Edward Shigley,et al.  Mechanical engineering design , 1972 .

[20]  Jordi Llorens,et al.  Variable rate sprayer. Part 2 - Vineyard prototype: Design, implementation, and validation , 2013 .