Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1978 Influence of electrostatic potentials on rotating discs for liquid spraying Adhemar Brandini Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Agriculture Commons, and the Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Commons Recommended Citation Brandini, Adhemar, "Influence of electrostatic potentials on rotating discs for liquid spraying " (1978). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 6373. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/6373 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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ZEEB ROAD, ANN ARBOR, Ml 48106 18 BEDFORD ROW, LONDON WC1R 4EJ, ENGLAND 790723b BRANDINI, ADHEMAR INFLUENCE OF ELECTR3STATIC POTENTIALS 0% ROTATING DISCS F0< LIQUID SPRAYING. IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY, PH.D., 1973 UniversiV Microfilms International 3oon. zeeb road, ann arbor, mmsiob Influence of electrostatic potentials on rotating discs for liquid spraying by Adhemar Brandini A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major: Agricultural Engineering Approved: Signature was redacted for privacy. In Ch^ge of ijor Work Signature was redacted for privacy. For the Major" Depai?^ent Signature was redacted for privacy. For the Graduate College Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1978 1 i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 A. Requirement for Spray Formulation 2 B. Biological Effectiveness 9 C. Recent Proposed Improvement 10 II. LITERATURE REVIEW 13 A. Rotating Disc Atomizers 13 B. Electrostatics; Its Influence on Dispersion and Deposition of Particulates 30 III. OBJECTIVES 46 IV. DATA ACQUISITION 47 A. Equipment 47 B. Materials and Methods 59 C. Test Procedure 66 D. Experimental Design 69 V. RESULTS 72 A. Spray Charging Characteristics 72 B. Droplet Size Characteristics 72 VI. DISCUSSION 85 A. Spray Charging Process 85 B. Droplet Size Distribution 91 VII. SUMMARY 119 VIII. CONCLUSIONS 121 ii i Page IX. BIBLIOGRAPHY 12 4 X. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 133 XI. APPENDIX A. SPRAY CHARGING CHARACTERISTICS 135 XII. APPENDIX B. RAW DATA FROM PARTICLE SIZE ANALYZER 139 XIII. APPENDIX C. COMPUTER PROGRAM 185 XIV. APPENDIX D. DROPLET SIZE DISTRIBUTION BY STATION (EXAMPLES SELECTED AT RANDOM) 213 XV. APPENDIX E. SUM DISTRIBUTION BY RUN 219 XVI. APPENDIX F. RADIAL DISTRIBUTION BY RUN 265 XVII. APPENDIX G. SPRAY DISPERSION 311 1 I. INTRODUCTION The increasing demand for food, fiber and fuel has pushed most of the technically advanced societies toward the improvement of agricultural production. Displacement of mules and oxen by tractors and sickles by combines has been continuous during the last four decades. Economics has dictated heavy fertilization of soils accompanied by application of large amounts of insecticides and other pesticides for crop protection as well as herbicides for weed control. Although the use of pesticides in agriculture started shortly after the discovery by Millardette in the 1880's that Bordeaux Mixture was effective in the control of downy mildew of grapes (Horsfall, 1956) , accelerated development started after World War II. The phenoxy-alliphatic herbi­ cides and the chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides were introduced for general domestic and agricultural use. These chemicals were inexpensive, effective in very small doses, and had low mammalian toxicity. The success and wide­ spread adoption of these chemicals started an endless search for other chemicals to achieve specific objectives and to substitute for some former chemicals either banned or under "restrictions for specific purposes. The development of the pesticide applicators has not 2 been as successful as the development of the chemicals. In general, for liquid application using ground equipment pressure nozzles are the only application device used, al­ though a large variation in their design and construction exists. The low-volume and ultra-low-volume (ULV) nozzles prevail for farm use, with a marked increase for the second type in recent years. The amount of liquid to be applied for insect control varies considerably but is generally 100 to 200 liters/ha (10 to 20 gallons/acre) for the low volume applicators, compared with 2 to 3 liters/ha for the ULV. The older high-volume applicators, like the costal ones, would use up to 2,400 1/ha for a single application, de­ pending upon the crop and pest being treated. A. Requirement for Spray Formulation Many of the actual pesticide chemicals are liquids, or can be emulsified or put into solution with commercial solvents. Dust formulations have lost popularity due to high transport costs, large amounts of very fine particles which drift easily even at low speed winds, and poor weather resistance, i.e., they are easily removed by rain- washing (Green et al., 1977). The liquid formulation has satisfactorily been applied 3 to plants, animals, and the soil as a spray, using ground equipment with conventional pressure nozzles as well as by aerial applicators. However, due to the increasing prices of particular chemicals and restriction imposed by environ­ mental agencies on the use of most of the agricultural pesticides and herbicides, a real challenge is presented to farmers, engineers and scientists, concerned with pesti­ cide applicators. Although the spray produced by a con­ ventional pressure nozzle can be controlled reasonably well the droplet size range is still very wide. This charac­ teristic, although not undesirable per se, has the dis­ advantage that only a portion of the sprayed material is deposited upon the intended target, while the remainder is deposited some place where it is wasted or its presence is considered undesirable. 1. Drift Drift is the process of transporting material away from the intended target by aerodynamic forces applied on the spray droplets, causing the pesticide chemical to settle on sites distinct from where it was intended to be deposited. Drift of a herbicide onto a crop which is sensitive to the chemical may kill the crop. Drift of other chemicals onto crops for which there exist no legal tolerances for resi­ dues may result in unmarketable crops. In either case. 4 drift may cause large economic losses and cause individuals responsible for the drift to be sued for compensation for the damage. Yates and Akesson (1973) showed that even under good weather conditions, spraying upwind of a field of alfalfa hay closer than 600 feet with 1.6 lb/A of DDT would result in deposits of chemical on the hay which exceeded legal limits for marketing. Skoog et al. (1976) studying aircraft applications of pesticides at ULV reported drift of particles as large as 100 microns above the height of the aircraft and 110 meter distant. Controlling spray drop size for precision spray appli­ cations appears to be the most logical approach for re­ ducing, if not eliminating, the aerial transport or drift of small particles. Chemical loss can take place; (a) by direct aerial loss at the time of application; (b) by direct application losses to soil under sprayed crop; (c) by transfer from crop plants to soil and thence to ground water (not large with low water solubility); (d) by losses to water run-off or to wind transport of plant materials and soil particles; and (e) by losses of pesti­ cides carried on raw produce processed in central canning, freezing, or fresh-food plants, in which case the pesti­ cide chemicals are peeled or removed with outer leaves or are washed off and become contaminants of sewage systems. 5 from which they flow into the waterways and finally into the oceans (Akesson et al., 1970). 2. Deposition efficiency Deposition efficiency is a measure of the amount of applied chemicals deposited on target plants. The smaller the value, the higher is the proportion of chemicals lost.