Journal of Agricultural Machinery (Jun 2024)
Design, Construction, and Optimization of Performance of Electrodynamic Spraying Head of Atomizer Motorized Knapsack Sprayer
Abstract
IntroductionDue to the increasing need for agricultural products, protection of products against pathogens and preventing them from being wasted is important. Studies on droplet charging systems result in the reduction of chemical usage and an increase in the deposition of droplets on the target. Conventional sprayers used in Iran have numerous disadvantages such as drift, environmental pollution, lack of complete and homogeneous coverage of the spraying surface, phytotoxicity, and crop losses. Therefore, evaluation of new spraying methods and using a variety of electrical sprayers as alternatives to conventional spraying is essential. This study aims to design, construct, and optimize the performance of the electrodynamic head of an atomizer motorized knapsack sprayer, and study the effects of the angle of the target position, spraying distance, and wind speed on the performance of the electrodynamic sprayer.Materials and MethodsExperiments were performed in an agricultural machinery workshop at The Department of Biosystems Engineering, the University of Kurdistan, Iran, with an atomizer motorized knapsack sprayer equipped with an electrodynamic head. The effect of some factors including wind speed, spraying angle, and spraying distance on deposition, coverage percentage, and uniformity of spraying were investigated. These effects were investigated to determine the uniformity coefficient of total spraying. Design Expert 8.0.6 Trial software was used to design the experiments based on central composite design and to analyze the data. The investigated factors and levels were: the distance of nozzles from the target (at three levels of 2, 4, and 6 m), the angle of the target position (at three levels of 0, 45, and 90 degrees), and wind speed (at three levels of 2.5, 3, and 3.5 m s-1). Water-sensitive paper cards were used to evaluate the quality of the spraying. The cards were scanned and magnified with an Olympus SZX12 Stereo Microscope equipped with an objective lens of X1 and a total magnification of 7X. The characteristics of droplet size were determined using Mountains Map Trial and Deposit Scan software.Results and DiscussionThe maximum value of the total spraying uniformity coefficient was equal to 1.95 for the spraying angle of 0 degrees, the distance of 6 meters, and the speed of 3.5 meters per second. Meanwhile, the lowest value of the spray uniformity coefficient of 1.18 was obtained for the test conditions of 90 degrees, distance of 2 m, and speed of 2.5 m s-1, respectively. Based on analysis of variance for the two-factor interactions model (P-value less than 0.0001, explanation coefficient 0.9383, absolute explanation coefficient 0.910, standard deviation 0.0590, and coefficient of variation 3.790%). It can be stated that this model is highly accurate in predicting the uniformity of the total spraying, and the linear components of spraying angle and spraying distance, as well as the interaction of spraying angle × spraying distance and spraying distance × wind speed, significantly affect the uniformity of the total spraying (p<0.05). Nevertheless, the linear component of wind speed and the interaction between wind speed and spraying angle had no significant effect on the changes in the uniformity coefficient of the total spray. According to the variance analysis table (F-values), spraying distance has a far greater effect on the spraying uniformity coefficient than the spraying angle.It has been observed that the spraying uniformity coefficient will increase by increasing the spraying distance and decreasing the spraying angle. It can also be stated that the linear components of spraying angle and spraying distance, the interaction component of spraying angle × spraying distance, and the square power of the components of spraying distance and wind speed have a significant effect on surface coverage. The values of R2, Adj-R2, CV, and PRESS for the model adapted to the test data of leaf surface coverage percentage were obtained as 0.9929, 0.9865, 4.87%, and 188.61, respectively.Among the three input variables, the spraying distance has the greatest effect on the coverage of water-sensitive papers. At larger spraying angles, especially 90 degrees, the coverage decreased with the increasing distance. At spray angle of 90 degrees, by increasing the distance from 2 to 4 m, the spray uniformity coefficient increased from 1.18 at a wind speed of 2.5 m s-1 to 1.84 at a wind speed of 3.5 m s-1. However, at smaller spraying angles (for example zero-degree angle), at first, the spraying coverage increases with the increase of the spraying distance from 2 to 3 m and then sharply decreases afterward. According to the contours of spray coverage, in the spray distance range of 4 to 6 m and regardless of wind speed, the spray coverage does not vary with the increase of the spraying angle (p< 0.05). Meanwhile, in the spray distance range of 2 to 4 m, with the increase of the spraying angle, the spraying coverage increases significantly (p<0.05). Overall, increasing the distance between the sprayer and the target decreased the surface coverage on the target, and in electrodynamic spraying, the uniformity of particle deposition on the underside of the target was relatively the same as on the upper side.ConclusionTo improve the performance of the atomizer motorized knapsack sprayer, an electrodynamic spraying head was designed and built, and its performance was optimized using the response surface method (RSM) with a central composite design. During the research process, the influence of the independent parameters such as the distance between the nozzle and the target, the angle of the target position, and the wind speed on the variables including spraying uniformity, the percentage of the spraying coverage, and the percentage of changes in the total spraying coefficient were discussed and investigated. The results of the research led to the determination of the 3.5 m s-1 wind speed, 2.5 m sprayer distance, and 90 degrees spraying angle with 0.792 desirability, which were considered as the optimal performance conditions of the electrodynamic spraying head. The results of laboratory validation for optimal conditions show that the uniformity of total spraying indicated by the total relative span factor (RSFT) and the percentage of spraying coverage (Cov) are equal to 1.65 and 28.27%, respectively.
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