DROPLET SIZE DISTRIBUTION MEASUREMENTS OF ISO NOZZLES BY SHADOWGRAPHY METHOD.

The droplet size distribution of agricultural sprays is a key parameter during the plant protection product applications. Therefore, measurement of the drop size distribution is an important concern for spray users as well as nozzle manufacturers. The present work assessed the capability of a shadowgraphy technique to distinguish correctly the 6 spray class boundaries defined in the ISO draft standard (ISO 25358). The measurement set-up is composed by a high speed camera synchronized with a LED backlighting. The tested spray is positioned between the camera and the light. The droplets appear on the images as shadows on a brighter background. For each acquisition, two frames are recorded within a small time laps (38 μI. The droplet diameter and velocity are retrieved by using advanced image analysis algorithm on each pair of frames. Then, the drop size distribution is obtained by gathering the data retrieved from all the images. The global results showed that the 6 drop size distributions were correctly separated highlighting the ability of the method to measure small as well as large droplets using the same set-up configuration. The spatial analysis showed that the spray scanning should be extended in the minor axis direction in order to catch the whole spray.