Experimental simulation and evaluation of poison spraying from sprayer nozzle using computational fluid dynamics modeling

Despite the dangers of agricultural pesticides for human, animals, and the environment, spraying is the main way to control weeds, pests, and plant diseases. The size of particle and uniformity of toxin distribution during spraying time are two of the most influencing factors in the spraying quality. To achieve this, it is necessary to study the effect of various factors on the behavior and movement pattern of toxin particles from the time of spraying until the moment of settling on the plant. Using experimental method, is the most common method for assessing the quality of spraying. In this research, using ANSYS R17.1 software computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was used to simulate the fluid behavior as an alternative to the experimental method. Therefore, the effect of three types of Tee Jet nozzles of 0-21, 0-110, and 110-04 with various pressure levels of 2, 3, and 4 bar were evaluated. A factorial experiment with 3 replications in a completely randomized design and Duncan's test were applied to compare the means of treatments. The data from simulation and experimental results demonstrated that the best nozzle in terms of uniform volume distribution of particles was sprayer nozzle 110/03 which has the best spraying uniformity in the three pressure levels studied compared to other nozzles. Comparing the spray angle results revealed that the maximum difference between the experimental method and the simulation was only 8%. Finally, it was concluded that computational fluid dynamics modeling is an appropriate method for predicting the behavior of toxin particles during the spray from the nozzle.