DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A WHEEL OPERATED BOOM SPRAYER FOR SMALL HOLDING FARMERS
Loading...
Date
2020-08-31
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Division of Agricultural Engineering Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Jammu Main Campus, Chatha, Jammu
Abstract
This study was undertaken to develop and evaluate a wheel operated boom sprayer for small holding farmers. The development process began with a conceptual design based on computer aided design (CAD) software. The prototype consisted of frame, tank, bicycle wheel, boom stand, hose pipe, boom and nozzles.
The effect of nozzle type (N1 = flat fan, N2 = hollow cone and N3 = flood jet), type of boom (B1 = carrying two nozzles, B2 = carrying three nozzles and B3 = carrying four nozzles) and height of the boom (H1 = 400 mm, H2 = 500 mm and H3 = 600 mm) were studied on nozzle discharge (l/h), swath width (cm), spray overlap (%), spray coverage (%), size of droplets (µm), droplet density (droplets/cm2), spray drift (%), DV0.1 (µm), DV0.5 (µm) and DV0.9(µm) in laboratory. The optimum treatments obtained from the laboratory test for each nozzle type were further evaluated in field of knoll khol crop to further validate the results obtained during the study. The study involved the use of dropleaf software, which analyses the spray pattern obtained on water sensitive papers (WSP) used during the study to measure various spraying characteristics of the sprayer.
The nozzle discharge (l/h), swath width (cm), size of droplets (µm) increased with the increase in number of nozzles on boom while as spray overlap (%), droplet density (droplets cm-2) and spray drift (%) decreased with the increase in the number of nozzles on boom. The swath width, spray overlap (%), size of droplets(µm), spray drift (%) and DV0.1 (µm) increased with the increase in height of boom while as nozzle discharge (l/h), spray coverage (%) and droplet density (droplets/cm2) decreased with the increase in the height of boom.
The treatments which resulted in maximum spray coverage and least spray drift were boom carrying four flat fan nozzles at the height of 400 mm with spray coverage of 34.5 % and spray drift of 2.8 %. Similarly for hollow cone nozzle, the treatment combination of boom carrying four nozzles at the height of 400 mm having spray coverage of 40.9 % and spray drift of 3.1 %. In case of flood jet nozzle, the treatment combination was boom carrying two nozzles at the height of 400 mm with maximum spray coverage of 35.8 % and spray drift of 0.4 % respectively.
Description
Keywords
36580