Loading...
Theses
Browse
1 results
Search Results
ThesisItem Open Access Development of patternator and performance evaluation of different nozzles used in agricultural sprayers(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2017-06) Yadav, Hemant Kumar; Arun KumarIn agrarian economy, agriculture plays a vital role to secure the nation and crop production being soul of agriculture highlights its importance. In order to accommodate the requirements of a growing population, agricultural production and protection technology play a vital role. More recently, while estimates of potential global losses due to insect and vertebrate pests, diseases and weeds varies from crop to crop, it has been estimated that these pests possibly cost up to 40% of the world’s production of food by reducing crop yield and causing losses in storage. In India, annual crop loss is estimated to be around 50,000 crores due to pests. Plant protection chemicals currently cover about 30% of the total cultivated area in India, of which insecticides account for 61.39% followed by fungicides (19.06%), herbicides (16.75%) and others (2.80%). The plant protection operations are generally done by hydraulic energy sprayers, gaseous energy sprayers, centrifugal energy sprayers, kinetic energy sprayer. Nozzle selection is one of the most important decisions to be made related to pesticide applications. The type of nozzle affects not only the amount of spray applied to a particular area, but also the uniformity of the applied spray, the coverage obtained on the sprayed surfaces, and the amount of drift that can occur. In pesticide application, accuracy and uniformity of application is most important to avoid adverse effects of pesticides on environment and crop injury, and reduced pest management. A poor choice in spray nozzles selection, or use of under-performing nozzles, can lead to re-spraying and reduced performance, so one should be very particular regarding use of nozzles. Keeping in view the above mentioned problems, a Patternator was developed in the Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering to evaluate the performance of different nozzles used in agricultural sprayers. Nine nozzles Flat Fan nozzle, Hollow Cone nozzle, Solid Cone nozzle, Flood Type nozzle, NTM, Kishan, NMD, BCN and Plastic speaker were selected and tested in the laboratory to find their volumetric distribution, swath width 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) and nozzle heights (200, 300,400,500,545 and 600 mm). The most uniform volumetric distribution of manual operated flat fan nozzle was obtained at 400 mm height on 2.5 kg/cm2 operational pressure and C.V. value of the distribution was 33.96%. Among the power operated nozzles, uniform volumetric distribution NTM nozzle and kishan nozzle was recorded at 545 mm height with the operational pressure of 3.5 kg/cm2 and Coefficient of variation values were 20.32 and 29.82%, respectively. Highest spray angle 69° for kishan nozzle was calculated at 400 mm height with the operating pressure of 3.5 kg/cm2 followed by flood type nozzle 68.08o was recorded at 400 mm height with the operating pressure of 3.5 kg/cm2. Minimum spray angle was calculated for the hollow cone nozzle and plastic speaker nozzle as 28.07o with the operating pressure of 1.5 kg/cm2 at 400 mm height which was similar in both types of spray nozzles. The maximum swath width of NMD nozzle (720 mm) and BCN nozzle (660 mm) was observed at 600mm height and operational pressure of 3.5 kg/cm2. Maximum discharge rate was recorded with flood type nozzle 3.120 l/min at the operating pressure of 3.5 kg/cm2 followed by NTM nozzle 1.332 l/min at 3.5 kg/cm2 and NMD nozzle 0.906 l/min at the operating pressure of 3 kg/cm2. It was found that with the increment of operating pressure, the discharge rate was also found to be increased.