Granular Fertilizer Mass Flow Measurement and Vehicle Experiments Based on Microwave Doppler Method

Highlights A microwave Doppler-based fertilizer mass flow measurement system was developed. The measurement system was applied in vehicle experiments. Power spectra of mass flow signal and vibration signal were obtained and analyzed. Interference suppression algorithm based on CA-CFAR reduced vibration interference. Fertilizer mass flow measurement accuracy was improved by interference suppression. Abstract . The fertilizer mass flow measurement system is typically installed on the fertilizer applicator. However, vehicle vibrations are inevitable during field operation of fertilizing equipment, and can interfere with mass flow signals, thereby affecting the accuracy of mass flow measurements. In this article, a mass flow measurement system based on the microwave Doppler method was introduced. The dominant frequency (fdot) related to fertilizer velocity and the power spectral density (PSD) related to fertilizer concentration were obtained from the Doppler signal of the granular fertilizer processed using fast Fourier transform. The product of fdot and PSD is defined as the sensor output value (SOV). The relationship between SOV, PSD, and fertilizer mass flow (FMF) was studied under vehicle conditions. The linear regression models of 22-8-10 (MOP) high-nitrogen poly-?-glutamic acid fertilizer were established using the least squares method, and the vibration signals were measured. Based on analysis of the power spectra of the mass flow and vibration signals, an interference suppression algorithm based on cell average constant false alarm rate (CA-CFAR) was presented to reduce vibration interference. To verify the performance of the novel vibration interference reduction algorithm, vehicle experiments were conducted at different tractor velocities. The results show that mass flow measurements ranged from 1300 to 3000 g min-1. It was found that using only the PSD related to concentration for flow measurement gave better measurement accuracy compared with SOV, and relative errors of the system were within 8.1%. Correlation between the PSD and FMF improved with interference suppression algorithm based on CA-CFAR. The determination coefficient increased from 0.01 to 0.92, 0.97 to 0.99, and 0.96 to 0.98 at three different tractor velocities, respectively. From the results, it was evident that the algorithm effectively eliminated vibration interference signals in vehicle conditions. In future work, the conditions of the soil will be considered and the performance of the mass flow measurement system will be tested in the field. Keywords: Fertilizer mass flow, Microwave Doppler radar, Tractor vibration, Vehicle experiment, Vibration interference suppression.