Variable air assistance system for orchard sprayers; concept, design and preliminary testing

Holownicki, R.; Doruchowski, G.; Swiechowski, W.; Godyń, A.; Konopacki, P.

doi:10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2017.09.004

Cited by 38 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…In light of the need described earlier, pesticide application equipment design in recent years has been active. While many developments have focused on sensing module-based precision spraying 15 to maximize treatment efficacy and minimize the risks of pesticide off-target losses, [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] very few advances have been made in pesticide application equipment characterized by pneumatic atomization. Despite a reputation for collateral risk from drift and spray losses caused by the fine droplets generated by these sprayers, they remain widely used in the most important wine 30,31 and table grape-producing 32 vineyard areas around the world.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field assessment of a newly‐designed pneumatic spout to contain spray drift in vineyards: evaluation of canopy distribution and off‐target losses

Grella

Miranda‐Fuentes

Marucco

et al. 2020

Pest Management Science

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BACKGROUND: The efficacy and environmental sustainability of pesticide application largely depend on maximizing target coverage, while minimizing off-target losses. Recently, laboratory-based measurements were used to develop new cannontype spout to increase the droplet size spectra produced by a pneumatic vineyard sprayer. The study described below evaluated the effectiveness of the new device to reduce off-target losses (both in-field and off-field ground losses), and to distribute an adequate canopy spray. Field trials were conducted to measure canopy spray deposition, canopy coverage, and off-target losses from a multiple-row pneumatic sprayer equipped with newly-designed spout under three different positional configurations. The configurations were defined by the variation of liquid release positions from the inner to the outer part of the cannon-type spout: conventional, alternative, and extreme. Each configuration was tested in a vineyard by applying a solution of water and yellow-dye tracer. RESULTS: It was confirmed that the increased droplet size corresponding to the alternative and extreme liquid release positions has no effect on total canopy deposition or coverage. The alternative and extreme configurations produced reduced off-field losses, up to 75% and 83%, respectively, by increasing the droplet size spectra. These reduced off-field losses imply increased in-field losses of 13% and 16%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The newly-designed pneumatic spout offers the first effective option for environmentally-friendly pneumatic spray pesticide application with the guarantee of canopy spray deposition and coverage levels similar to those obtained with conventional pneumatic application.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field assessment of a newly‐designed pneumatic spout to contain spray drift in vineyards: evaluation of canopy distribution and off‐target losses

Grella

Miranda‐Fuentes

Marucco

et al. 2020

Pest Management Science

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“…To combat the known inefficiency of airassisted sprayers, enhanced sprayers have been developed. These sprayers use various methods to increase sprayer efficiency including variable air assistance (Ho1ownicki et al, 2017) and technology to detect tree size and shape using ultrasonic sensors (Stajnko et al, 2012) and Red Green Blue color model cameras (Ho cevar et al, 2010). Chen et al (2012) developed an intelligent, laser-guided sprayer designed for orchard, vineyard, and nursery applications.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Advancing Sustainability in Tree Crop Pest Management: Refining Spray Application Rate with a Laser-guided Variable-rate Sprayer in Apple Orchards

Fessler¹,

Fulcher²,

Lockwood³

et al. 2020

horts

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Advanced variable-rate spray technology, which applies pesticides based on real-time scanning laser rangefinder measurements of plant presence, size, and density, was developed and retrofitted to existing sprayers. Experiments were conducted to characterize the application of four programmed spray rates (0.03, 0.05, 0.07, or 0.09 L·m−3 of crop geometric volume) when applied to Malus domestica Borkh. ‘Golden Delicious’ apple trees using this crop sensing technology. Water-sensitive cards (WSCs) were used as samplers to quantify spray coverage, deposits, and deposit density in the target and nontarget areas, and an overspray index based on a threshold of greater than 30% coverage was calculated. The application rate ranged from 262 L·ha−1 at the programmed spray rate of 0.03 L·m−3 to 638 L·ha−1 at the rate of 0.09 L·m−3. For a given WSC position, spray coverage and deposits increased as the spray rate increased. WSC positions 1 and 2 were oversprayed at all rates. The effect of spray rate on deposit density varied with WSC positions, with high densities achieved by low spray rates for WSCs closest to the sprayer but by high spray rates for WSCs positioned either deeper within or under the canopy. When coalescing deposits were accounted for, deposit densities met or exceeded the recommended pesticide application thresholds (insecticides 20–30 droplets/cm2; fungicides 50–70 droplets/cm2) at all WSC positions for each spray rate tested. The lowest spray rate reduced off-target loss to the orchard floor by 81% compared with the highest rate, dramatically reducing potential exposure to nontarget organisms, such as foraging pollinators, to come into contact with pesticide residues. Applying the lowest rate of 0.03 L·m−3 met deposit density efficacy levels while reducing spray volume by 83% compared with the orchard standard application of 1540 L·ha−1 and by 87% compared with the 1950 L·ha−1 application rate recommended when using the tree row volume method. Thus, there is potential for growers to refine pesticide application rates to further achieve significant pesticide cost savings. Producers of other woody crops, such as nursery, citrus, and grapes, who use air-assisted sprayers, may be able to achieve similar savings by refining pesticide applications through the use of laser rangefinder-based spray application technology.

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“…To determine the accuracy of the airflow velocity simulation using Fluent, a model verification test was conducted. The relative error method to measure the accuracy of the simulation and results is given by Equation (9).…”

Section: Comparison Of Test Value and Simulation Valuementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consequently, air-assisted spraying has been widely used in orchard plant protection. In recent years, scholars have applied computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to the study of air-assisted spraying [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] . Dekeyser et al [18] used CFD simulation and experimental verification methods to study the parameters of nozzles, droplet size distribution, and wind field airflow on three commercially available air-assisted sprayers with different air-feeding devices.…”

Section: Introduction 1mentioning

confidence: 99%

CFD simulation and experiment on the flow field of air-assisted ultra-low-volume sprayers in facilities

Gong

Liu

et al. 2021

International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering

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In order to explore the performance of the B-ULV-616A knapsack sprayer, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to simulate the B-ULV-616A knapsack air-assisted device, which features an ultra-low-volume electric sprayer. Field experiments were carried out to test the spraying effects, and the KANOMAX anemometer was used to verify the simulated results. First, the internal and external flow fields and droplet deposition distribution of the ultra-low-volume sprayer were established. The results showed that the air-assisted spray device can change the airflow speed and direction and produce a high-speed swirling airflow at the outlet of the air-assisted spray device. The high-speed airflow (maximum of 83.5 m/s) generates negative pressure (minimum of 0.099 MPa) and causes a rapid increase in the droplet velocity and a secondary droplets spray, allowing droplets to reach a longer distance. Then, the maximum relative error was 20.14%, and its average value was 9.59%, indicating that the CFD method is suitable for the flow field analysis of the air-assisted spray device. Finally, based on the greenhouse experiment, the knapsack air-assisted ultra-low-volume electric sprayer was found to effectively improve the deposition on the rear of the crop, increase the droplet density (maximum of 81/cm 2 ; droplet density of conventional electric sprayer is 64/cm 2 ), and reduce the deposition amount and coefficient of variation (below 20%) within and between regions. Further, it managed to reduce pesticide use (by 69.85%) and rural non-point source pollution.

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Variable air assistance system for orchard sprayers; concept, design and preliminary testing

Cited by 38 publications

References 37 publications

Field assessment of a newly‐designed pneumatic spout to contain spray drift in vineyards: evaluation of canopy distribution and off‐target losses

Field assessment of a newly‐designed pneumatic spout to contain spray drift in vineyards: evaluation of canopy distribution and off‐target losses

Advancing Sustainability in Tree Crop Pest Management: Refining Spray Application Rate with a Laser-guided Variable-rate Sprayer in Apple Orchards

CFD simulation and experiment on the flow field of air-assisted ultra-low-volume sprayers in facilities

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