Unmanned aerial spraying systems (UASSs) are increasingly used in crop protection. There are, however, considerable concerns regarding pesticide drift during their field application, which poses potential environmental risks. Reducing drift while maintaining efficiency is therefore critical. In this study, an octocopter UASS with centrifugal nozzles was tested under varying spray parameters using a modified ISO 22866 method. The effects of droplet size, flight speed and flight height on target deposition and downwind drift were evaluated under two crosswind conditions, and UASS performance was compared with that of a conventional boom sprayer. The downwind cumulative drift percentage of the UASS is 62.8-811.7%, which is 1.5-17.9 times that of boom sprayers, depending on the operational parameters of the UASS. Droplet size, flight speed and flight height had significant effects on UASS drift, while flight height was the most critical in determining droplet drift and deposition. Droplet size exerted a stronger influence on airborne drift than flight speed, while neither droplet size nor flight speed had a significant impact on target-area deposition. Lowering the flight height to below 3 m should be considered first to reduce drift risk during operations. This study provides quantitative evidence on the influence of spray parameters on UASS drift behavior and highlights strategies to mitigate drift risks. The findings offer valuable guidance for parameter optimization in UASS field spraying, thereby supporting environmentally safer pesticide applications and promoting cleaner agricultural production. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.

Impact of shelf-life on the pharmaceutical equivalence assessment of a hydrocortisone semisolid W/O emulsion: Evaluation of rheological, structural, and release properties.

Evaluation of interfacial properties, droplet size optimisation and rheological properties of chemically modified Bambara groundnut (Vigna Subterranea) starch in oil-in-water emulsions

Research on the ion-extraction demulsification mechanism and fiber-particle-induced coalescence for deep oil removal from high-salinity gas-field produced water.

Biological activities and safety assessment of Teleogryllus mitratus extracts for skin delivery via nanoemulsion-based systems.

Insight into simultaneous destabilization of oleosomes during aqueous enzymatic extraction of Idesia polycarpa fruit oil by short-chain alcohol with talc.

Resveratrol alleviates lipid deposition, endoplasmic reticulum stress, inflammation and apoptosis in the livers of large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea) fed with a soybean oil-based diet.

Scalable formation of high dispersed-phase fraction (ϕ) emulsions without mechanical agitation is a critical challenge in colloid and interface science. Conventional high-energy routes rely on cavitation and shear induced breakup, leading to uncontrolled temperature rise and degradation of bioactives, whereas low-energy methods offer gentle operation but limited throughput. We hypothesize that vapor-phase condensation on surfactant solutions can bypass shear-driven breakup entirely, enabling thermally gentle, energy-efficient and continuous formation of dense emulsions by nucleating and stabilizing droplets at the interface before coalescence can occur. Building on earlier studies of Emulsions by Vapor Condensation (EVC) on deep stagnant pools, we developed a continuous Emulsions by Vapor Condensation on Thin Film (EVC-F) process incorporating a custom-designed Dispenser-Spreader-Sweeper (DSS) arm. The arm uniformly spreads a surfactant-laden oil film on a cooled substrate and cyclically sweeps away condensate formed emulsions, enabling continuous operation. Using food grade surfactants (polyglycerol polyricinoleate and soy lecithin), we systematically investigated how variations in film thickness, residence time (DSS rotation speed), and condensation rate modulate interfacial nucleation kinetics and droplet evolution, thereby controlling ϕ and emulsion stability, as supported by morphological and rheological analyses. The EVC-F process produced submicron droplets (100 to 800nm) with tunable ϕ up to about 25%, surpassing previous EVC systems that produced less than 1%. PGPR yielded highly stable emulsions with monomodal, narrow droplet size distributions and near-Newtonian like rheology, whereas lecithin produced larger and more polydisperse droplets. Mixed systems exhibited composition dependent stability, with PGPR rich blends remaining stable for more than 30days. The improved stability of EVC-F emulsions relative to ultrasonication suggests that condensation-driven interfacial nucleation mitigates coalescence and dispersed phase loss typically observed under shear-dominated, non-isothermal conditions. These results establish EVC-F as a thermally gentle, energy-efficient, and scalable route for producing dilute to dense food-grade emulsions relevant to soft-matter, colloidal, and interfacial science.

Design and optimization of the surfactant mixture ratio for oleic acid-based ophthalmic nanoemulsions prepared by the HPH technology - feasibility study for clotrimazole as a model drug.

Tailoring the stability of low-salt myofibrillar protein emulsions via a glycation-enzymatic deamidation strategy: An interfacial molecular assembly perspective.

Metered dose inhalers (MDIs) have been used for 60 years to treat a range of respiratory diseases including asthma. These portable, low-cost medical devices produce a respirable aerosol of micron-size droplets via flash-atomisation of a fluorocarbon propellant blended with drugs and other chemicals. MDIs produce complex multiphase flows in which turbulence, heat transfer and non-equilibrium flash evaporation play coequal roles in determining aerosol properties. Experimental studies of near-field spray structure are limited, as MDI sprays are not amenable to many conventional optical diagnostic techniques and the parameter space for the various propellants and nozzle geometries used in practice is large. This paper presents an alternative approach using multiphase large eddy simulation (LES). We employed a compressible Eulerian mixed-fluid approach using a custom solver written in OpenFOAM. Phase change was handled using a homogeneous relaxation model (HRM) previously developed for flash-evaporating fuel sprays (Neroorkar et al., 2012). Droplet formation, collisions and transport were modelled using a Sigma-Y specific surface area transport model (Rachakonda et al., 2018). We show that the HRM model can approximately reproduce experimental droplet size distributions obtained using laser diffraction and experimental line-of-sight integrated density distributions obtained using X-ray scattering. Results were obtained for three commonly used propellant-ethanol mixtures at a fixed ethanol mass fraction of 15%. Our model provides new insight into the features of the non-equilibrium flash-evaporation of the jet, how this process varies depending on propellant thermophysical properties, and what non-dimensional parameters are best suited to capturing these variations. • Metered dose inhalers produce complex flash evaporating multiphase flows. • A compressible mixed-fluid approach for MDI sprays using OpenFOAM is developed. • Phase change is handled using a homogeneous relaxation model. • Atomisation is modelled with the Sigma-Y surface area transport approach. • Simulation results are validated against laser diffraction and X-ray scattering.

Dynamic 1-D-PBM simulation of droplet size evolution with directly-measured kernel functions in pulsed extraction column

Stevia vs. sucrose in saffron-loaded water-in-oil-in-water double emulsions: stabilization mechanisms, rheological performance, and microstructural evolution.

Functional and physicochemical properties of fava bean protein concentrates obtained from isoelectric pH precipitation and membrane ultrafiltration

Storage stability of food-grade bimodal oil-in-water emulsions: Effects of emulsifier type and combination

Sodium hyaluronate-stabilized luteolin-loaded microemulsion gel: Interface-driven nanocarrier for enhanced skin delivery and therapeutic efficacy on atopic dermatitis.

pH-dependent interactions in OPI/CS composites drive emulsion stability and β-carotene bioaccessibility.

Measuring water droplet size distribution in churned butter and water-in-fat emulsions using X-ray microtomography

A synergistic demulsification method based on electric-field polarization and ultrasonic cavitation/mechanical effects: Theory and experiment.

Experimental investigation and modeling of the droplet size and distribution in a pulsed sieve-plate column for an emulsion liquid membrane system used in uranium extraction