Electrostatic Deposition of Pesticide Sprays onto Ionizing Targets: Charge- and Mass-Transfer Analysis

Electrostatic deposition of charged pesticide sprays onto biological targets may be undesirably limited under certain operational conditions by gaseous-discharge currents induced to flow between the incoming charged spray cloud and grounded points on the target (e.g. leaf tips). Spray deposition and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on industry applications 1982-11, Vol.IA-18 (6), p.673-679
Main Authors: Law, S. Edward, Lane, Michael D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural engineering
Charge transfer
Clouds
Design engineering
Electric potential
Electrostatic analysis
Industry Applications Society
Ionization
Plants (biology)
Spraying
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Summary:Electrostatic deposition of charged pesticide sprays onto biological targets may be undesirably limited under certain operational conditions by gaseous-discharge currents induced to flow between the incoming charged spray cloud and grounded points on the target (e.g. leaf tips). Spray deposition and charge transfer onto idealized target models as functions of target characteristics and intensity of spray-droplet charging are quantified experimentally to achieve a more fundamental understanding of this phenomenon. As compared to similar uncharged sprays, deposition onto smooth spherical, and planar targets was increased up to seven-fold and three-fold, respectively, at optimum spray-charge levels. Space-charge induced target ionization from a 20-mm point protrustion self-limited this electrostatic deposition to only a 3.5-fold increase for the spherical target but caused little reduction for the planar target. As compared with a hydraulic-atomizing nozzle, the charging nozzle increased deposition approximately eight-fold and 24-fold, respectively, onto the spherical and the planar targets. The ratios of charge-to-mass collected on all targets were unexpectedly found to exceed values calculated for the airborne charged-droplet cloud, indicating a possible contact-discharge during elastic collision of conductive droplets at the target.
ISSN:0093-9994
1939-9367
DOI:10.1109/TIA.1982.4504125