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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Wooster, Ohio » Application Technology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #93748
Title: HYDRAULIC AGITATION IN AGROCHEMICAL SPRAYER TANKS

Author
item UCAR, T - OSU/OARDC
item OZKAN, H - OSU/OARDC
item Fox, Robert
item Brazee, Ross
item Derksen, Richard

Submitted to: Agricultural Engineering International Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/24/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Effectiveness of hydraulic jet agitation systems of agrochemical sprayers was investigated by measuring the concentration of a kaolin clay/water mixture in the line to the boom. Experiments were conducted on several sprayer tanks of different capacities and agitator types. An agitation effectiveness index (AGEF) was defined to help evaluate the effectiveness of hydraulic agitation systems in agricultural sprayer tanks. Hydraulic power of the agitation system was also used. Statistical analysis of experimental data showed that the system pressure was the most important factor affecting agitation effectiveness through its direct influence on jet velocity. If the jet velocity was kept constant, then the volume of fluid delivered into the tank was the most important factor in enhancing mixture uniformity. FLUENT, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, was also used to investigate flow movements in sprayer tanks with hydraulic jet agitators. Single-phase solutions to computer model also agreed well with experimental results. However, solving three dimensional, turbulent, multiphase flows (granular model) was not feasible using personal computers because computation times would be several months.