scholarly journals Pneumatic Atomization: Beam-Steering Correction in Laser Diffraction Measurements of Spray Droplet Size Distributions

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 1738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Wittner ◽  
Heike Karbstein ◽  
Volker Gaukel

Laser diffraction is among the most widely used methods for spray droplet size measurements. However, the so-called beam-steering effect must be considered when pneumatic atomizers are used for droplet generation. The beam-steering effect is a systematic measurement error, leading to the detection of apparent large spray droplets due to gradients in the refractive index of the gas phase. The established correction method is based on the reduction of the laser diffraction system’s measurement range by deactivation of detectors, relevant for the detection of large droplets. As this method is only applicable when size ranges of real and apparent droplet sizes are clearly different, an alternative method for beam-steering correction is introduced in the presented study. It is based on a multimodal log-normal fit of measured spray droplet sizes. The modality representing the largest droplets is correlated to the beam-steering effect and therefore excluded from the measured size distribution. The new method was successfully applied to previously published droplet size distribution measurements of an internal mixing Air-Core-Liquid-Ring (ACLR) atomizer. In measurements where the method of detector deactivation is applicable, excellent accordance of droplet size distributions, gained by both correction methods, was found. In measurements with overlapping real and apparent parts of the distribution, the new correction method led to a significant reduction of overestimated large droplets. As a consequence, we conclude that the new method presented here for beam-steering correction should be applied in laser diffraction measurements of spray droplet sizes, generated by pneumatic atomizers.

2002 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 267-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milton E. Teske ◽  
Harold W. Thistle ◽  
Andrew J. Hewitt ◽  
I. W. Kirk

1977 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 0232-0237 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. L. Reichard ◽  
H. J. Retzer ◽  
L. A. Liljedahl ◽  
F. R. Hall

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 313-325
Author(s):  
Zhiming Wei ◽  
Heping Zhu ◽  
Zhihong Zhang ◽  
Ramón Salcedo ◽  
Degang Duan

HighlightsDroplet sizes, activation pressures acting on nozzle orifices, and flow rates were investigated.Droplet sizes varied with duty cycles, nozzle orifice sizes, and PWM solenoid valve manufacturers.Activation pressures decreased as duty cycles decreased and increased as nozzle orifice sizes decreased.Flow rates increased with increases in both duty cycles and nozzle orifice sizes.Abstract. Pulse width modulated (PWM) spray systems can produce variable spray rates for precision applications of pesticide and fertilizer; however, there are also concerns over their spray performance stability. Droplet size distributions, activation pressures acting on nozzle orifices, and flow rates discharged from nozzles were investigated for test combinations of ten PWM duty cycles (10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, and 100%), six flat-fan nozzles with different orifice sizes (XR8001, XR8002, XR8003, XR8004, XR8005, and XR8006), and two PWM solenoid valves from two different manufacturers. Test results showed that the droplet size distribution, activation pressure, and flow rate varied with the duty cycle, nozzle orifice size, and PWM solenoid valve source. For XR8001 and XR8002 nozzles, droplet sizes did not vary significantly with all duty cycles from 10% to 100%. To obtain relatively consistent droplet size distributions, XR8003 and XR8004 nozzles required PWM duty cycles of at least 20%, while XR8005 and XR8006 nozzles required duty cycles of 30% or greater. The activation pressure directly on nozzle orifices increased as the duty cycle increased but decreased as the nozzle orifice size increased. In addition, the same nozzles coupled with PWM solenoid valves from two different manufacturers discharged different flow rates for the same duty cycle in the range of 10% to 90%. Therefore, careful selection of PWM solenoid valves for different orifice nozzles operated at different duty cycles was necessary to achieve consistent variable-rate spray performances. Keywords: Droplet diameter, Variable rate, PWM solenoid valve, Pesticide, Fertilizer, Precision farming.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Pörtge ◽  
Tobias Kölling ◽  
Tobias Zinner ◽  
Linda Forster ◽  
Claudia Emde ◽  
...  

<p>The evolution of clouds and their impact on weather and climate is closely related to the cloud droplet size distribution, which is often represented by two parameters: the cloud droplet effective radius (reff) and the effective variance (veff). The droplet radius (reff) determines the radiative effect of clouds on climate. The effective variance is a measure of the width of the size distribution which is, for instance, important to understand the formation of precipitation or entrainment and mixing processes. We present an airborne remote-sensing technique to determine reff and veff from high-resolution polarimetric imaging observations of the LMU cloud camera system specMACS.</p><p>Recently the spectral camera system has been upgraded by a wide-field polarization resolving RGB camera which was operated for the first time on the HALO aircraft during the EUREC<sup>4</sup>A campaign. The new polarimeter is ideally suited for observing the cloudbow - an optical phenomenon which forms by scattering of sunlight by liquid water cloud droplets at cloud top. The cloudbow is dominated by single scattering which has two implications: Its visibility is significantly enhanced in polarized measurements and its structure is sensitive to the cloud droplet size distribution at cloud top. This allows the retrieval of reff and veff by fitting the observed polarized cloudbow reflectances against a look-up table of pre-computed scattering phase functions.</p><p>The characteristics of the polarimeter are optimized for the measurement of the cloudbow. The wide field-of-view is key for observing the cloudbow (scattering angle 135° -165°) for a wide range of solar positions. Another advantage is the high spatial and temporal resolution which allows the study of small-scale variability of cloud microphysics at cloud top with a horizontal resolution of up to 20 m. Combining the polarimetric cloudbow technique with an existing stereographic retrieval of cloud geometry allows to derive vertical profiles of the droplet size distribution at cloud top. Observations of different EUREC<sup>4</sup>A cloud fields are used to demonstrate the retrieval technique and to present first spatial distributions and vertical profiles of cloud droplet size distributions.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 1845-1853
Author(s):  
Huseyin Guler ◽  
Zhihong Zhang ◽  
Heping Zhu ◽  
Matthew Grieshop ◽  
Mark A. Ledebuhr

HighlightsDroplet sizes were determined for rotary micro sprinkler nozzles used in solid set canopy delivery systems.An empirical multiple-variable model was developed to predict volume median diameters in spray patterns.Sprinkler nozzles produced medium to coarse droplets to minimize pesticide drift in orchards and trellised systems.Droplet size information can be used to select optimal nozzles for either irrigation or pesticide delivery systems.Abstract. Rotary micro sprinkler nozzles can be used for both irrigation and pesticide applications in orchard systems, but little to no information is available on their droplet size distributions. In this study, the droplet size distributions were investigated and described for rotary micro sprinkler nozzles with five different orifice diameters. A particle/droplet laser image analysis system was used to measure droplet spectra at two pressures (207 and 310 kPa) and two radial distances (0.25 and 0.85 m) from the sprinkler nozzle center. Nozzle orifice sizes, rotational speeds, and flow rates were also measured. Droplet sizes varied with the orifice size, operating pressure, and sampling location. Spiral-shaped spray patterns formed due to the spinning discharge port, within which droplet densities varied with location, orifice diameter, and operating pressure. The volume medium diameters (Dv0.5) for green-black, orange-blue, black-black, blue-black, and red-gray nozzles were respectively 317, 338, 379, 352, and 218 µm at 207 kPa and 283, 250, 283, 270, and 222 µm at 310 kPa. An empirical multiple-variable regression model was developed to predict Dv0.5 in the spray patterns discharged from the nozzles. Test results demonstrated that the rotary micro sprinkler nozzles produced medium to coarse droplets that could be used to minimize spray drift while maintaining efficacy in orchard pesticide applications. Keywords: Chemical application, Droplet size, Irrigation, Rotary nozzle, Spray drift reduction.


Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Duthon ◽  
Michèle Colomb ◽  
Frédéric Bernardin

Fog is one of major challenges for transportation systems. The automation of the latter is based on perception sensors that can be disrupted by atmospheric conditions. As fog conditions are random and non-reproducible in nature, Cerema has designed a platform to generate fog and rain on demand. Two types of artificial fog with different droplet size distributions are generated: they correspond to radiation fogs with small and medium droplets. This study presents an original method for classifying these different types of fog in a descriptive and quantitative way. It uses a new fog classification coefficient based on a principal component analysis, which measures the ability of a pair of droplet size distribution descriptors to differentiate between the two different types of fog. This method is applied to a database containing more than 12,000 droplet size distributions collected within the platform. It makes it possible to show: (1) that the two types of fog proposed by Cerema have significantly different droplet size distributions, for meteorological visibility values from 10 m to 1000 m; (2) that the proposed droplet size distribution range is included in the natural droplet size distribution range; (3) that the proposed droplet size distribution range should be extended in particular with larger droplets. Finally, the proposed method makes it possible to compare the different fog droplet size distribution descriptors proposed in the literature.


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