ID 331

A parametric study of Phase Doppler (PDPA) measurements with various agricultural spray mixtures

 

Abstract:

The need to study the spray drift of agricultural pesticide applications has long been motivated by unintended environmental impacts and wasted product resulting in financial losses. The recent increased practice of post-emergent applications of synthetic-auxin herbicides in new herbicide-tolerant crop species has pushed the practice of characterizing agricultural spray mixtures to resolve near traceable amounts of driftable droplets. Being a single-droplet measurement technique, application of Phase Doppler Particle Analysis (PDPA, also known as PDI) measurements offer additional size and velocity information of such spray droplet measurements. Phase Doppler, however, is not commonly used to quantify suspensions or other multi-phase liquids. This study examined the measurement of a monodisperse droplet stream of a variety of actual agricultural spray mixtures. PDPA measurements were attempted in forward scatter (refraction) and back scatter (internal reflection and external reflection) modes. The resulting benefits and limitations of such measurements are discussed in detail.