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Because of variations in environmental conditions, spray-drift field measurements following ISO 22866:2005 involve complicated and time-consuming experiments often with low repeatability. Therefore, simple, repeatable, and precise alternative drift assessment methods that are complementary to the official standards are required. One of the alternatives is the use of a drift test bench for field crop sprayers. Previous studies have demonstrated that the drift test bench can be considered an adequate complement to existing standard protocols for field drift measurements. In this study, in order to further improve the methodology and to evaluate the possibility of classifying different field-crop-sprayer settings according to drift risk using a test bench, a series of tests were performed in a test hall. A conventional mounted Delvano HD3 crop sprayer (Delvano, Kuurne, Belgium) equipped with an 800-l spray tank and a 15-m-wide stainless steel spray boom was used. Eight different sprayer setups were tested, involving three nozzle types (TeeJet XR 110 04, Agrotop TDXL 110 04 and Micron Micromax 3) and three boom heights (0.30, 0.50, and 0.70 m). For the drift classification, the reference sprayer drift behaviour was defined as that obtained using conventional flat fan TeeJet XR 110 04 nozzles operated at 0.30 MPa and at a boom height of 0.50 m. The different sprayer setups were successfully assigned to different drift reduction classes, and the results underlined the effects of nozzle type and boom height on the potential drift. The feasibility of the test-bench methodology for classifying field-crop-sprayer drift according to ISO 22369-1:2006 was demonstrated.Postprint (published version

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Pesticide droplet is evaporating during the falling from the nozzle to the target. This dynamic evaporation is influenced by ambient temperature, relative humidity (RH), adjuvant type and concentration. In the evaporation process, the droplet size at different height is affected by the droplet evaporation. Based on this, this study determined the droplet dynamic evaporation by collecting the droplets from different height via silicone oil method with a certain temperature and RH. Eight adjuvants were chosen, including three organo-silicon, three vegetable oil and two non-ionic, with five concentrations. All droplets were generated by a droplet generator. The results showed that the type of adjuvant, ambient temperature and RH had no significant influence on droplet size generated by droplet generator. All the adjuvants in this experiment cannot reduce dynamic evaporation; Concentration of adjuvant made a difference in dynamic evaporation. This could be because of the property of adjuvant. Organo-silicon adjuvants have a negative correlation with water vapor pressure, it showed less dynamic evaporation at high temperature and RH. Vegetable oil and non-ionic adjuvant, they are the same as the controlled blank that the dynamic evaporation reduces with decreasing temperature and increasing RH.

The quality of distribution from field sprayers involves many parameters. Distribution is affected by environmental conditions. It also depends on static parameters concerning the boom at rest, and dynamic parameters involving boom movements. Field measurements at the Biologische Bundesanstalt (BBA) have shown the importance of the dynamic criteria. To avoid the effect of environmental parameters. one solution is to use a track simulator. A method has been developed at Cemagref (FR) to simulate distribution on soil from measurements of boom movements on the track simulator. Other evaluation methods have been dcvcloped by other laboratories. Two EU research programmes are now under way to develop test methods for field sprayer booms. The aim of the first is to compare the methods used to show the effect of boom movements. The second concerns the development of a test method for inspecting sprayers on firms. The results of these two projects will be used for the elaboration of an IS0 standard.

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