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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Sustainable and Intelligent Phytoprotection
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1351525
This article is part of the Research Topic Pests and Diseases Monitoring and Forecasting Algorithms, Technologies, and Applications View all 18 articles

Multifactorial analysis and experiments affecting the effect of fog droplet penetration in fruit tree canopies

Provisionally accepted
Daozong Sun Daozong Sun 1,2,3Junyutai Hu Junyutai Hu 3*Xinghan Huang Xinghan Huang 3Wenhao Luo Wenhao Luo 3Shuran Song Shuran Song 1,2,3Xiuyun Xue Xiuyun Xue 1,2,3
  • 1 College of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China
  • 2 Guangdong Engineering Research Center for Monitoring Agricultural Information, Guangzhou, China
  • 3 College of Electronic Engineering (College of Artificial Intelligence), South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study examines the effects of canopy density, side wind speed, nozzle tilt angle, and droplet size on droplet penetration during plant protection spraying operations. Experiments in citrus orchards evaluated how side wind speed and nozzle tilt angle influence droplet penetration across various canopy densities. A Phase Doppler Analyzer (PDA) was used to assess droplet size variations under different nozzle tilt angles and side wind speeds. The data yielded a multiple linear regression equation (R² = 0.866), linking nozzle tilt angle and side wind speed with droplet size. Results showed that droplet size decreases with increasing nozzle tilt angle at a constant crosswind speed. Further experiments investigated the effects of droplet size and canopy leaf area density on droplet penetration. The spray tests involved three canopy leaf area densities, four wind speeds, and six nozzle tilt angles. Droplet deposition and canopy coverage were measured under various spraying parameters, with conventional operations (0° nozzle tilt and orthogonal wind speeds) as controls. The study found that adjusting nozzle tilt angle and wind speed enhances droplet penetration in different canopy structures. Optimal parameters varied with leaf area density (LAD): an 18° tilt angle and 3 m/s wind speed for a LAD of 5.94 m² /m³ , a 45° tilt angle and 2 m/s wind speed for a LAD of 8.47 m² /m³ , and a 36° tilt angle and 3 m/s wind speed for a LAD of 11.12 m² /m³ . At 2 m/s, droplet deposition followed a downward parabolic trend with changes in nozzle tilt angle, whereas at 3 m/s, deposition followed an upward parabolic trend. At a side wind speed of 3 m/s, droplet deposition remained unchanged with nozzle tilt angle but decreased with increasing canopy density. Nonlinear regression analysis indicated that leaf area density had a greater impact on deposition differences than droplet size, with droplet penetration decreasing as leaf area density increased. This study provides a reference for enhancing fog droplet penetration techniques in plant protection operations.

    Keywords: wind speed, nozzle tilt angle, spraying, Droplet size, Droplet penetration, plant protection

    Received: 06 Dec 2023; Accepted: 18 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sun, Hu, Huang, Luo, Song and Xue. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Junyutai Hu, College of Electronic Engineering (College of Artificial Intelligence), South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.