1Department of Agricultural Engineering, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha, India
2Department of Agricultural Engineering, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. Coimbatore, India
*Corresponding author: k.harshavardhandora@gmail.com
A sprayer is a device used to spray a liquid, where sprayers are commonly used for projection of water, weed killers, crop performance materials, pest maintenance chemicals, as well as manufacturing and production line ingredients. Drift can be defined as spray which unintentionally reaches areas outside the target area, either as droplets, dry particles or vapour, during or after application on the target area. An increase in wind speed from 3 m/s to 5 m/s (at 2 m height) can double spray drift deposition. An experiment was conducted in a closed environment to find the spray drift analysis for different types of sprayers (Battery operated, Hi-tech, Knapsack, Rocker arm & Foot operated) with three different nozzles (Solid cone, flat fan & hallow cone) at different wind speeds (2, 5 & 10 km/hr) and different heights from ground level (50, 60 & 70 cm). Here, Rocker arm & Foot operated sprayers are used only with solid cone nozzle. The highest and lowest discharge rate was observed in battery operated sprayer with solid cone nozzle (1700 ml/min) and knap-sack sprayer with hallow cone nozzle respectively. The highest and lowest droplet size diameter at 50cm height was found in battery operated sprayer with solid cone nozzle (1.5 mm) and battery-operated sprayer with hallow cone nozzle (0.03 mm).
⓿ Increasing wind speed and spray height significantly increases spray drift during application.
⓿ Different sprayer–nozzle combinations significantly influence discharge rate and droplet size distribution.
Spray drift, Wind speed, Sprayer types, Nozzle types, Droplet size
