Drift study from an air-assisted spray nozzle

Increased use of pesticides has necessitated development of such pesticide application systems that have maximum effectiveness with minimum losses of pesticides. The drift is one of the losses from a spraying system, which is to be quantified for the development of improved pesticide application equipments. Spray drift tests in field conditions are labour intensive or require very sophisticated instruments for measurements. These depend on wind and climate conditions during the test along with nearby terrain and vegetations etc. Also, it is difficult to assess the influence of different variables on spray drift. An experimental setup was designed and fabricated to quantify the drift from the spray nozzle and to reduce the time as well as resources required for field measurement of drift. This drift represents the maximum possible drift from the nozzle, thus called drift potential. Laboratory experiments were conducted to quantify drift and to determine the effect of nozzle pressure, air speed and forward speed of air-assisted sprayer on spray drift potential. Results showed that drift potential varied from 4.21 % to 46.81 % and it increased with increase in nozzle pressure, air speed and forward speed of the air-assisted sprayer. Among the parameters under study, nozzle pressure influenced the drift potential maximum.