DEVELOPMENT OF BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLE SPRAYER.
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Date
2021-02-19
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Dr. Punjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra.
Abstract
Application of chemical pesticides is one of the most important processes in agricultural production, but also one of the most dangerous agricultural operations. Spraying has a very important role to play to reduce the harvest losses and improving productivity. To reduce the dependency on the fossil fuels a low-cost Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) sprayer was developed in the present investigation which has a boom sprayer attachment and battery electric vehicle as a prime mover. The developed system has high uniformity of spray, the spray distribution along with the swath and easy to adjust i.e., height of boom over a target crops a ladder type arrangement is provided for better performance.
A BEV sprayer was developed in the Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Dr. PDKV Akola with an objective to perform satisfactory spraying operation in the field crops to improving the chemical efficiency and to reduce the labor cost by promoting the green energy. FEM analysis of chassis by using ANSYS software and 3D computer added design software’s like CATIA was found suitable to make a necessary assumption and changes in the conceptual design phase which helps to reduces the repetitive fabrication work and time. The battery electric vehicle sprayer was designed with an aim to traversing between the row crops of 30, 45 and 60 cm spacing or row width more than 90 cm. Hence, the wheels, motor, battery and caster wheel are located in the narrow drive unit. The newly design BEV sprayer has an overall dimension (L X B X H) of 1560 x 6000 x 1020 mm with 6 m long boom while in rod transport with the folded boom it was 1560 x 2000 x 1060 mm. It was observed that an electric motor of 1 kW, 48 V, BLDC capable to propelled the vehicle as it developed a 99 N-m torque than the required (68 N-m) with the design gear ratio of 25:1. The design pack of batteries has 23 kW which is remains 10 kW after eliminating the values of Peurkrts effect and 80 per cent of discharge rate. During the running in test, it was noticed that 443.85 Wh/km is the maximum power requirement of the BEV sprayer at speed of 3.5 km/h on loaded condition with a continuous work of 7 hours. The developed BEV sprayer was tested in the laboratory and on the experimental field for optimization of the operating parameters for Greengram crop. After optimizing the operational parameters, the field tests were carried on such optimized parameters for determining the techno-economic feasibility of the BEV sprayer.
The nozzles with 0.6 mm, 0.8 mm and 1.0 mm orifice size were tested in the lab at 3 kg/cm2 pressure settings for verifying the feasibility with the relevant IS test code. All three nozzles were observed feasible to used and it was observed that the discharge rate to be increase with increases in orifice size and pressure. All three nozzles were tested in the laboratory on Spraytech Digital Droplet Analyzer for its droplet characterization for its categorization on the basis of spray with the relevant IS test code. It was observed that the droplet size increases with the increase in orifice size and decrease in the concentration of fine to course spray. All three produces the maximum droplet concentration between 100 to 400 µm. Hence, on the basis of droplet size, the sprayer can be categorized as fine spray.
To deliver the toxic insecticide dosage and to maximize the required deposition at the target droplet size, use of appropriate nozzles along with correct calibration is important. Three commercially available hollow cone nozzles adoptable for BEV sprayer with 0.6 mm, 0.8 mm and 1.0 mm orifice size were selected for study and their characteristics were evaluated to find their suitability for insecticide spray in Greengram (Vigna Radiata (L.) Wilczek) crop. An experimental field set-up was developed to study the droplet size distribution as influenced by the crop, machine and operational parameters. The forward speed studied for spray nozzles were 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 km/h. All the three nozzles were tested at the three operating pressures of 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 kg/cm2 with three orifice diameters of 0.6 mm, 0.8 mm, 1.0 mm in the experimental field tests. The height of the nozzle was maintained at 15 inches (381mm) above the target crop. The droplet sizes at different distances were collected by using 5 per cent concentration of methylene blue dye droplet impression on the water sensitive papers. The droplet images were scanned and analyzed using the DepositScan software. An experimental optimization is carried out using Design Expert 11.0 version software for Response Surface Methodology to analyze the combined effect of the factors at levels chosen on the independent variables viz., orifice diameter, forward speed, and operating pressure. Regression models were arrived for predicting the NMD, VMD and UC, DD and LAC in terms of the orifice diameter, forward speed and operating pressure.
The RSM results showed that among linear effects of orifice size of the nozzle and operating pressure had a significant effect on VMD at 1 per cent level of significance followed by the speed in quadratic effect. The high value of coefficient of determination R2= 0.9891 obtained for response variable indicated that the developed model for VMD accounted for and adequately explained 98.91 per cent of the total variation. Similarly, the quadratic effect of orifice size and pressure on the NMD indicates that increasing the value of variable initially increases response up to certain level of variable however further increases in the level of variable decreases the value of response (R2= 9672). The RSM results showed that linear effect speed and pressure had significant effect on UC followed by the orifice size. The interaction effect of orifice size of nozzle and operating pressure is more than the speed and pressure (R2=0.9733). In the case of DD, the RSM results (R2=0.9561) showed that the linear effect of orifice size had a significant effect on droplet density followed by the speed. In the case of LAC, the results showed that linear effect of office size had significant effect of followed by the speed (R2=0.8286). The RSM was applied to find the best fitted model and the optimization level of study factor in which the amount of value fits. The RSM results showed that the sprayer satisfactorily performed with 0.8 mm orifice size nozzle on 3.0 kg/cm2 pressure and at a forward speed of 2.5 km/h for the Greengram crop.
After optimization the performance parameter of the sprayer was tested in the Greengram field at CRS, Dr. PDKV Akola. During the field test, it was observed that the effective field capacity of the sprayer was 1.09 ha/h with field efficiency of 79.81 per cent. It was noticed that a two-wheel platform with caster wheel arrangement has ability to easy turning over the headland. The average application rate of the spray mixture was observed as 150.33 l/ha. On the basis of total volume of spray mixture applied, sprayer can be categorized as low volume sprayer. Initially developed BEV spraying machine was tested with the help of two workers hence the average cost of operation was found to be 131 Rs. /ha. For spraying and propelling of the BEV sprayer, the current requirement was observed as 42.6 A from which the power requirement was calculated as 443.85 W/km. From this, it was calculated that the BEV sprayer can work up to 7 h on 2.5 km/h forward speed with a continuous operation on full charging of the batteries. From the experimentation, it was observed that the sprayer is capable to satisfactory spray the liquid at top, middle and bottom position of leaves at upper and lower side.
During the techno-economic feasibility of the BEV sprayer the payback period was analyzed to be 4.13 yrs of the machine operation. It means that the BEV spraying machine investment would pay for itself after that period. The result also shows that the average rate of return on investment was found 1.53 that is higher than unity, which is a profitable venture for an entrepreneur. As can be seen from results that the BCR, PBP, BEP, was estimated as 1.53, 4.13 yrs., and 105.21 ha/yr respectively that are above their accepting range such as BCR>1, PBPannual interest rate, and NPV>zero these results support that investments on BEV spraying machinery using custom hire service method in the study area is attractive and profitable for a small land holder farmer.
Description
The present research work was carried out to develop the battery electric vehicle sprayer with low cost and time saving over the traditional methods. Optimization of the operating parameters were carried out to analyze the combine effect of the factors at levels on the dependent variables viz., orifice diameter, forward speed and pressure. Performance evaluation of sprayer were carried out for optimized parameter in Greengram crop.
Keywords
Citation
KARALE, DHIRAJ SADASHIVRAO. (2020). Development of battery electric vehicle sprayer. Department of farm power and machinery (Agricultural Engineering), Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola. Ph. D. 2020. Print. xxiii, 284 p. (Unpublished).