COMPUTATION MODEL OF ELECTROSTATIC SPRAYING IN AGRICULTURE INDUSTRYMurtadha Al-Mamury, Balachandran, Wamadeva, Al-Raweshidy, Hamed and Manivannan, NadarajahAbstract Electrostatic spraying (ESS) has been used to improve plant coverage with treatment fluids. An Induction charging nozzle has been used to investigate the role of electrostatic forces on target coverage with spray fluid. Five metal targets were examined, conical, flat, cylindrical, ellipsoid and spherical. Theoretical and experimental studies were conducted under some common operational conditions. COMSOL software simulation was used to investigate the role of electrostatic forces on the different targets. Especial Faraday cage was constructed to isolate the experimentation zone from outside random fields in order to measure the current and charge mass ratio accurately. These values were measured at seven levels of air pressures (5psi, 10psi, 15psi, 20psi, 25psi, 30psi, 35psi). The results obtained from this study indicated that there are direct relationships between water flow rate with both current and charge mass ratio. The maximum current and charge mass ratio measured was for the conical target and followed by flat, cylindrical, ellipsoid and spherical targets respectively. These results will be used to design a smart spraying system with sensors to increase the efficiency of pesticide application. |