Development of Automatic Nutrient-Solution Mixing System Using a Low-Cost and Precise Liquid Metering Device

액제 정밀계량 장치를 이용한 양액 자동조제 시스템 개발

This study was conducted to develop an automatic nutrient-solution mixing system for small-scale sewers. The nutrient-solution mixing system consisted of a low-cost and precise metering device and data acquisition ＆ control system with a personal computer. and, the metering device was composed of three parts those were supply pumps, metering cylinders and venturi tube. The system controlled electric conductivity(EC) and pH of nutrient-solution based on the time-based feedback control method with the information about temperature, EC, and pH of the nutrient-solution. The performance of the nutrient-solution mixing system was evaluated through the control of EC and pH while compared with those of commercial system. Also an experimental cultivation of tomato was conducted to verify and to improve the developed system. Results of this study were as follows. 1. The correlation coefficient of meteing device between the flow rate and operating time was 0.9999, and the linear reuession equation computed was y=21.759x, where y is the discharge($g$) and x is the operating time(s). 2. Calculated errors for the developed metering device and two commercial pump were $\pm$0.3% $\pm$2.45% and $\pm$1.38 % FS error respectively. 3. An automatic nutrient-solution mixing system based on a low-cost and precise metering device was developed. 4. The full scale errors of the developed system in controlling EC and pH at 23$\pm$1$^{\circ}C$ were $\pm$0.05mS/cm and $\pm$0.2, respectively 5. When using the commercial system, the controlled values of EC and pH of the 500 $\ell$ of water were 1.29 mS/cm and 6.1 pH for the setting points of 1.4 mS/cm and 6.0 pH respectively at 23$pm1^{\circ}C$. 6. The developed nutrient-solution control system showed $\pm$0.05 ms/cm of deviation from the setting EC value over the experimental cultivation period. 7. The deviation from the average values of Ca and Mg mass content in the several nutrient-solution were 0.5% and 1.8% respectively.