A hybrid Lagrangian-dispersion model for spray drift prediction applied to horizontal boom sprayers

RENAUDO, CARLOS A.; BERTIN, DIEGO E.; BUCALÁ, VERÓNICA

JOURNAL OF AEROSOL SCIENCE

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Año: 2023 vol. 173

0021-8502

A spray drift model for horizontal boom sprayers was developed, based on an earlier single nozzlemodel described by Renaudo et al. (2022). The extended model, which also includes dropletsdispersion in the vertical direction, was successfully calibrated and then validated with field datafrom sources that covers different process conditions. In fact, the calculated spray drift valuesshowed good agreement with reported measurements in a wide range of distances in thedownwind direction. For the studied cases, the eddy diffusivity was found to be a function of therelative humidity. In the absence of dispersion-related data, the fitted equation can be used tofully predict spray drift from horizontal boom sprayers. The results indicated that, as thedownwind distance increases, more nozzles contribute to the deposited flowrate and thereforeaccounting for them is necessary for a good representation of the spray drift. The modeldemonstrated to have low computational costs (time and resources) being then suitable to be usedon board sprayer computers and web servers.