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ThesisItem Open Access Performance evaluation and vibration analysis of a modified self-propelled boom sprayer for intra canopy spraying(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2019-08) Bisht, Manoj Singh; Arun KumarIndia has made impressive improvement on the agricultural front since independence. Plant protection is an essential operation in the basic practices of crop production. Data shows that diseases, insects and weed put together 34 to 42 % damage to the crops produced worldwide. Annually Indian agriculture suffers a loss of about 30-40% crop yield of 3,600 crores due to insect and pests. Various plant protection measures are followed throughout India, among which chemical method is most widely used. Common plant protection equipments include Knapsack sprayers (manual and power operated), foot sprayer, tractor mounted sprayer in India. Most of the sprayers spray the solution from the top of the plant and the underside of the leaves also go unnoticed during spraying. The insects or pests that remain inside or underneath the canopy cover are not affected by the spray. It is difficult to achieve under leaf coverage with normal spraying operations. The pest and insets present inside the canopy and under the leaves are not affected by this spray which leads to infestation and damage even after spraying. Most of the Indian farmers have marginal and small land holding which makes it difficult to operate a tractor-drawn sprayer in those fields. Keeping in view the above problems the development of sprayer to perform intra canopy and under leaf spraying was undertaken. A self-propelled intra canopy boom sprayer was developed for spraying chemical in small height row crops in Indian condition. It was suitable for small land holdings and had low cost of operation. The modified self-propelled intra canopy boom sprayer had an improved boom section with flat fan nozzles mounted on the top of the boom to spray chemical from the top of the row and hollow cone nozzles placed at one third of plant height from the ground in between the rows to spray liquid into the canopy. Hollow cone nozzles mounted in U-types body were placed in between rows with the help of hose drops, the nozzles would spray chemical in the unidirectional area. For supplying the spray from delivery pipe it was connected to T socket and it delivered the liquid in two directions (top and bottom). The provision of gate valve was provided for controlling the supply of the bottom section. In order to obtain different application rate and spray discharge, gate valves at different positions were set. The swath width of sprayer is 3.6m. For every row of plants two nozzles (one flat fan and one hollow cone) were used to spray the liquid to get maximum leaf area coverage. The performance of the developed sprayer was evaluated in laboratory condition and analysis the vibration to ensure that the objectives are fulfilled. The nozzles were tested in the laboratory to find its volumetric distribution, swath and spray angle at different pressure and height combinations. The independent parameters for patternator test were operating pressure (1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 and 3.5 kg/cm2), nozzle heights (200, 300, 400, 500, 545 and 600 mm). The flat fan nozzle gave its best volumetric distribution at 2.5 kg/cm2 and 300 mm nozzle height while the hollow cone nozzles at 3 kg/cm2 and 545 mm nozzle height. The swath and angle of spray of the nozzles were determined and it was found that with increase in pressure and height the swath was increased while the spray angle increased with pressure. To equal discharge rate for both (top and bottom) the gate valve opening position should be 1/4th. The vibration acceleration increased significantly with increase in forward speed from 1.50 to 3.00 km/h corresponding to engine speed low to high of the sprayer .