Analysis of Droplet Density in relation with combine effect of blade angle and speed of operation of an axial flow blower in air assisted orchard sprayer

A.M. Gore, S.K. Thakare, M.M. Pakhare

Droplet Density, agricultural spraying techniques, plants

Plant protection activities are most important practices during crop production. Application of maximum pesticide products with the sprayer. The application of fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides is one of the most recurrent and significant tasks in agriculture. Conventional agricultural spraying techniques have made the inconsistency between economic growth and environmental protection in agricultural production. Spraying techniques continuously developed in recent decades. For pesticide application, it is not the only sprayer that is essential, but all the parameters like the type and area of the plant canopy, area of a plant leaf, height of the crop, and volume of plants related to plant protection product applications are very important for obtaining better results. From this point of view, the advancement in agriculture sprayer has been started in last few decades. Droplet density analysis of orchard sprayer having axial flow blower was carried out to determine the changes in droplet density at different speed and different blade angles. Droplet density analysis was carried out at two different positions (Outer and Inner) of crop canopy and at three different heights (Top, Middle, Bottom) of each crop canopy. The combine effect of blower speed and blade angle shows significant difference in the values of droplet density on outer and inner canopy at all positions. When sprayer was operated at 2.5 km/h, the droplet density increased by 22.5 % at blade angle 30˚ as compared to blade angle 25˚. It further increased by 31.4 % and 20 % when the blade angle was increased to 35˚ and 40˚ respectively. At speed of operation 3.0 km/h, recorded increase in droplet density was 22.2 %, 26.0 % and 18.9 % when the blade angle was changed from 25˚ to 30˚, 30˚ to 35˚ and 35˚ to 40˚ respectively. Whereas, at speed of operation 3.5 km/h, increase of 25.5 %, 22.3 % and 12.1 % respectively was recorded for every 5˚ change in blade angle.