• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.27-36
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• 2018

Effective pesticide applications are needed to assure the quality and economic competitiveness of fruit production and lower the risk of spray drift. Experimental studies have shown that better spray coverage and less driftability require an understanding of the transport of spray droplets within turbulent airflows in the orchard and the interaction between droplet dynamics and tree canopies. This study developed a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to predict pesticide flows in the orchard and spray drift discharged from an air-assisted orchard sprayer. The model represented the transport of spray droplets as well as droplets captured by tree canopies, which were modeled as a conical porous model and branched tree model. Validation of the CFD model was accomplished by comparing the CFD results with field measurements. Spray depositions inside tree canopies and at off-target locations were in good agreement with the measurements. The resulting data presented that 38.6%~42.3% of the sprayed droplets were delivered to the tree canopies while 13.6%~20.1% were drifted out of the orchard, part of them reached farther than 200 m from the orchard. The study demonstrates that CFD model can be used to evaluate spray application performance and spray drift potential.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.46-51
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• 2009

This paper presents results from field studies carried out to monitor off-target droplet movement of endosulfan insecticide applied to the Korea chestnut tree area. As a results, mean airborne drift values were recorded 25m as average from downwind of a single flight line(sample line) in mountain terrain and mean effective swath width was recorded 19.5m as average in a plain. In terms of characteristics of geography of Korea aerial application is mainly carried out in mountain terrain. The equipment, weather conditions, and appropriate aerial spray technic are required for effective aerial application. In particular, the pilot can get effective results when he only sprays with consideration of environment factors since there is much turbulence in mountain terrain. Eventually, the most effective factor of droplets drift is to estimate the local weather conditions exactly.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.431-440
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• 2001

Generated agri-chemical droplets by orchard sprayers are evaporated regenerated and transported along wind streams. The droplets are deposited to targets after changing their sizes, affecting the retention of droplets. An orchard sprayer, designed for spraying grapevines was studied on the spatial distribution of droplet size. The experimental variables were spray direction (0, 22.5, 45, 67.5 and 90˚), distance(2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 m) and fan speed (2,075 and 3,031 rpm). Droplet sizes were converted and analyzed from spray stains, sampled using water sensitive papers. The number median diameter (NMD) increased with an increase of the distance due to disappeared fine droplets (<50 ㎛): however, the volume median diameter (VMD) decreased due to shrunken large droplets (>100 ㎛). Fast fan speed delivered large droplets to 3.5 m, but the spatial distributions of NMD and VMD were not uniform. Slower fan speed decreased the possibility of evaporation and drift; therefore, plenty of droplets were maintained up to 3.0 m. The upward blasting distance was limited within 3 m, but the limit to the ground level was extended to 3.5 m. Concentrated wind and droplets to the ground level should be redistributed to upper canopy direction, leading more uniform deposits. High speed wind and system pressure should be avoided because of generating fine droplets, which would be disappeared and drifted away.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.61 no.5
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• pp.79-87
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• 2019

With desires for safe food, there is growing concern that pesticide spray drift will expose people, plants, and the environment to pesticide residue and potential negative effects thereof. For highly efficient, safe spray application, technologies for measuring the spray drift should be developed and improved with some urgency. This study investigated the applicability of two optical particle counters (OPCs), which are mostly used to measure airborne particle mass concentration, for measurement of airborne pesticide spray drift. Experiments were conducted in a controlled laboratory and an ash tree orchard to evaluate the handiness and accuracy of two OPCs, OPC 1 and OPC 2. The experimental results indicated that the OPC 1 was better applicable to the measurement of spray drift in the field while the use of the OPC 2 was limited due to its narrow range of measurable droplet sizes. The readings of the OPC 1 produced highly accurate results ($R^2=0.9637$) compared to the actual spray drift. For better application of OPCs, this study suggests the OPCs should be positioned properly to inhale spray droplets of the appropriate size and concentration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bio-Environment Control Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.1-4
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• 1998

상온연무기와 같은 소량살포기에 의해 살포된 농약액의 입자경은 10-20$\mu\textrm{m}$ 이하의 것이 대부분이다. 미소 액적은 단시간에 공기의 습구 온도와 평형하게 되어 혼합, 확산되는 특성을 가지고 있으며 증발과 Drift현상이 발생된다. 시설원예의 경우 폐쇄환경에 있으므로 연무직후 온실내 작업의 제한, 부착력포의 불균일, 증발과 Drift량의 과다 등이 큰 문제가 된다. (중략)

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.106-114
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• 2023

With rising concerns about pesticide spray drift by aerial application, this study attempt to evaluate aerodynamic property and collection efficiency of spray drift according to the leaf area index (LAI) of crop for preventing undesirable pesticide contamination by the spray-drift tunnel experiment. The collection efficiency of the plant with 'Low' LAI was measured at 16.13% at a wind speed of 1 m·s^-1. As the wind speed increased to 2 m·s^-1, the collection efficiency of plant with the same LAI level increased 1.80 times higher to 29.06%. For the 'Medium' level LAI, the collection efficiency was 24.42% and 43.06% at wind speed of 1 m·s^-1 and 2 m·s^-1, respectively. For the 'High' level LAI, it also increased 1.24 times higher as the wind speed increased. The measured results indicated that the collection of spray droplets by leaves were increased with LAI and wind speed. This also implied that dense leaves would have more advantages for preventing the drift of airborne spray droplets. Aerodynamic properties also tended to increase as the LAI increased, and the regression analysis of quadric equation and power law equation showed high explanatory of 0.96-0.99.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.351-356
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• 2008

This study was carried out to assess adoptability and environment impacts of ultra low volume (ULV) pesticide spray solutions aerially sprayed by manned-helicopter. Uniformity of the deposited amount in paddy fields was uneven, showing $3.1{\sim}4.7$ times differences among surveyed sites. Drifting distance of aerially sprayed droplets from the target area was within 30 m in the wind direction and 20 m in the opposite direction. Most of the aerially sprayed pesticides were deposited in/on rice plants, while those in submerged paddy water and soil were relatively small. The degradation rate of the deposited pesticides was in the decreasing order of rice plants, paddy water and soil. Soil residues of pesticides in the aerially sprayed rice paddy fields after harvest ranged from non-detected to 0.201 mg/kg. However, no pesticides were detected in brown rice and rice straw. No phytotoxic symtoms were observed in rice plants and nearby non-target crops by the sprayed pesticides.