Mathematical modeling of the spray deposition in agricultural spraying

Abstract

Spray drift is the loss of Plant Protection Products due to climatic effects and/or a poor application practices. Spray drift is a complex process that depends on the application conditions, spray, type of crop, atmospheric conditions, and physicochemical properties of the agrochemical. Due to the large number of factors that affect spray drift, an experimental evaluation of the risk of drift for all operating conditions, spray equipment and climatic factors corresponding to a given application is very difficult to carry out. In this context, mathematical models are a key tool to the phenomena that lead to spray drift and find appropriate application conditions that lead to minimize the contamination risks. In this work, a mathematical model to predict the spray drift produced by an agricultural spray nozzle is presented. The model is based on continuous distribution functions. The model is implemented on gPROMS software.