Abstract
The ultimate goal of agricultural spraying application system is to put the correct amount of pesticides, in the correct place, at the correct time to reduce the pest to a level below the economic threshold in order to improve agricultural production. A spray patternator was fabricated for the selection of a suitable nozzle to have uniform distribution of the spray liquid. Experiments were conducted on a spray patternator through two types of spray nozzles (even flat fan nozzle TPE for banding application and standard flat fan nozzle TP for broadcasting application). Spray distribution was determined and compared by using single nozzle, at a height of 0.5 m under laboratory conditions. In addition, this paper examined the effect of spray fan angles 65 and 80° and liquid pressures 200 and 300 kPa on the spray distribution. The best distribution of the spray application was obtained by using banding nozzles, whereas the broadcasting nozzle gave an uneven spray distribution with a high peak just below the nozzle centre and taper off towards the edges of the spray pattern. For the two nozzle types tested, results revealed that increasing nozzle angle and pressure reduce the value of the coefficient of variation CV%. Key words: Static spray distribution, nozzle, patternator, coefficient of variation (CV).
Highlights
Agricultural chemical can be applied according to the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Standards (2006) by broadcast application that uses spray over an entire field and band application that uses spray in parallel bands leaving areas between the bands free of chemical
The effect of interaction of nozzle type, angle and pressure were investigated. The interaction among these three factors affect the results of the spray distribution and was noted from the static spray distribution test Figure 4 that even-spray flat-fan nozzles TPE were better than that of standard flat-fan nozzles TP in the spray distribution at the same nozzle angles and pressures
A spray patternator was fabricated for the selection of a suitable nozzle type, its angle and pressure to provide uniform distribution of spray liquid above the plant
Summary
Agricultural chemical can be applied according to the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Standards (2006) by broadcast application that uses spray over an entire field and band application that uses spray in parallel bands leaving areas between the bands free of chemical. Chemical control in row crops is typically carried out as a broadcast application by using standard flat fan nozzles and most farmers use this kind of application because it is the easiest and preferred method. Standard flat-fan nozzles are not recommended for banded application as result to the following reasons: (1) These nozzles should be overlapped (a array of nozzles) to achieve spray uniform distribution across the entire width of the boom but using the overlapped spray in the row crop fields will cause losing of the spray among the rows or strips. The question is whether it is possible to use the existing even flat-fan nozzles for spray distribution in very narrow bands instead of standard flat fan nozzles to achieve more efficient spray distribution in the fields.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
