Author
Thomson, Steven | |
Lyn, Margaret |
Submitted to: World Congress of the International Commission of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 4/12/2010 Publication Date: 6/16/2011 Citation: Thomson, S.J., Lyn, M.E. 2011. Characterizing ambient and spray mixture effects on droplet size represented by water sensitive paper (WSP). XVIIth World Congress of the International Commission of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering. Paper no.CSBE101144.pdf., 8 pp. Interpretive Summary: Aerial application of chemical can produce droplets of a wide range in size. Smaller droplets are much more prone drift off-target, creating a potential environmental concern. Water sensitive paper (WSP) cards are frequently used in the field to provide visual representation of droplet size and density for spray drift and deposition studies. Droplets collected on WSP spread out on the surface of the paper, and standard “spread factor” equations are used to compensate for spread to characterize actual droplet size. To date, no data have been presented to consider the effects of ambient conditions and formulation on droplet size represented by WSP. These data would be useful for creation of more accurate spread factor equations. Experiments were conducted in a controlled environment chamber to determine these effects, and preliminary results showed that droplet size depends on the formulation used and that size of droplet stain was highly influenced by changes in relative humidity. Technical Abstract: Water sensitive paper (WSP) cards are frequently used to provide visual representation of droplet size and density for spray drift and deposition studies. Droplets collected on WSP spread out on the surface of the paper, and standard “spread factor” equations are used to compensate for spread to characterize actual droplet size. To date, no data have been presented to consider the effects of ambient conditions and formulation on droplet size represented by WSP. These data would be useful for creation of more accurate spread factor equations, and significant effects on droplet size could be modeled into new equations to account for these variables. A preliminary study was conducted using a newly constructed enclosed chamber that allows independent control of temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) to determine the effects of T, RH, formulation, and droplet volume on droplet diameter as represented by WSP. Droplets of a known diameter were placed on several WSP cards using five mixtures of Domark® fungicide, Syl-Tac® surfactant, and water while RH, T, and droplet volume were varied at three levels each. The WSP were optically scanned to obtain droplet size. Statistical procedures were used to determine the effect of T, RH, droplet volume, and spray mixture on stain area, and a model was developed over the droplet size range applied. A useful relationship of the influence of ambient conditions was derived, which indicated a linear relationship between RH and droplet stain area. |