Design and Development of Centrifugal Blower for Aero Blast Sprayer in High Density Mango Orchard

Abstract

Effective pest control requires precise and uniform application of pesticide on newlinethe target area. Air assistance in spraying system improves the deposition uniformly newlinein the entire tree canopy. Requirement of air and spray volume are influenced by leaf newlinearea, leaf density and canopy volume of tree. High power air assisted sprayers are newlineused for blanket spray application in developed countries. In India manual or HTP newlinesprayers are used for spraying horticultural crops which results in uneven spraying, newlineincurring more cost and inefficient pest control. To overcome these limitations a newlinesuitable alternative is development of aero blast sprayer operated by 18 hp tractor. newlineTo assess air and spray volume requirement for spraying on matured HDP newlinemango orchard, tree parameters canopy volume, mean leaf area, leaf density and total newlineleaf area of tree were estimated. Air and spray volume requirement for HDP mango newlineorchard spraying was calculated. The centrifugal blower with forward curved blade newlinewas designed to deliver the air of 2.5 m3/s for 18 hp tractor. The impeller with 40 newlineblades was fabricated and tested in the laboratory as per AMCA standard. The best newlineperformance was observed for developed blower and selected for development of air newlineblast sprayer. Field prototype of air blast sprayer with developed centrifugal blower newlinewas developed. Performance of aero blast sprayer for spray deposition pattern was newlineevaluated in the laboratory. The desired air discharge of 2.66 m3/s was found at 2200 newlinerpm whereas theoretical requirement was 2.50 m3/s for efficient spraying operation in newlineHDP mango orchard. The maximum blower efficiency of 93.26 per cent and the newlinesufficient spray throw was found at 2200 rpm blower speed. The speed of 2200 rpm newlinewas selected to study the droplet spectrum analysis. Contd.... newline