Abstract
Purpose: This study determines the spray characteristics and effective spray width of a tractor-mounted commercial boom sprayer through experiments. Methods: Performance tests were conducted to investigate the spray characteristics of the nozzles on a commercial boom sprayer. The flow rate and spray width of a single nozzle were measured at three levels of spray pressure (0.5, 0.7, and 1.0 MPa) and spray height (15, 30, and 45 cm), respectively. The average value of three repetition tests was used as the representative value. A coefficient of variation (CV) was used as an index of spray uniformity, and the width that guarantees CV values of approximately 15% was determined as the effective spray width. The spray characteristics of the overall boom sprayer were derived analytically by superimposing the spray characteristics of a single nozzle. Results: The test results for a single nozzle showed that the spray width tended to increase as the spray height and spray pressure increased. The effective spray width for a single nozzle was the largest at a spray pressure of 1.0 MPa and spray height of 45 cm, which resulted in a coverage of 84 cm of width. The effective spray width for the entire boom sprayer was also the largest at the spray pressure of 1.0 MPa and spray height of 45 cm, with a magnitude of 424.5 cm. The chemical spraying work in an actual field was simulated by applying a spray width of 400 cm. As a result of the operation for three swaths, the CV value was less than 10% for 1,200 cm of the overall spray width, which meant that uniform application was achieved. Conclusions: It was reasonable to set the effective spray width of the boom sprayer used in this study to 400 cm.