ISSN: 1546-962X
CODEN: JAIOAD
Page Count: 9

Flight Line Variability in Rotary Atomizer Drop Size Distribution

Teske, ME
Senior Associate, Continuum Dynamics, Inc., Ewing, NJ

Thistle, HW
Program Manager, USDA Forest Service, Morgantown, WV

Reardon, RC
Program Manager, USDA Forest Service, Morgantown, WV

Davies, DC
General Manager, Forest Protection Limited, Fredericton, NB

Cormier, G
Information Services Manager, Forest Protection Limited, Fredericton, NB

Cameron, RS
Forest Health Manager, International Paper, Savannah, GA

LeClerc, MY
Professor, Laboratory for Environmental Physics, University of Georgia, Griffin, GA

Karipot, A
Assistant Resarch Scientist, Laboratory for Environmental Physics, University of Georgia, Griffin, GA

(Received 17 August 2004; accepted 21 June 2005)

Abstract

An extensive data set generated with a highly instrumented aircraft provides 0.2-s interval data of aircraft and mechanical release system behavior during aerial application. These unique data previously provided an excellent source of information on the variability of aerial application parameters along individual flight lines and enabled a sensitivity analysis to bound the variability in the expected deposition patterns. They also showed how this variability might impact any error bounds established around the time-averaged predictions generated by the AGDISP model. This paper quantifies the variability in the drop size distribution generated by the rotary atomizers and makes suggestions with regard to possible implications of this variability on the variability of deposition predictions across any spray application involving their use. The measured variability may not be unique to rotary atomizers, as a sensitivity study of hydraulic atomizers gives similar results.

Keywords:
Aerial spraying, rotary atomizer, flight line variability, modeling

Paper ID: JAI12922
DOI: 10.1520/JAI12922
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