Interception of spray drift by border structures. Part 1: wind tunnel experiments
De Schampheleire, M.; Nuyttens, D.; Dekeyser, D.; Verboven, P.; Cornelis, W.; Gabriels, D.; Spanoghe, P.
Communications in Agricultural and Applied Biological Sciences 73(4): 719-722
2008
ISSN/ISBN: 1379-1176 PMID: 19226819 Document Number: 620827
This research investigated the drift-intercepting potential of structures surrounding the field borders, like artificial screens and crops, which are not yet a part of the drift mitigation measures for field crop sprayers in Belgium. Drift-interception experiments were performed in the wind tunnel of the International Centre for Eremology (Ghent University, Belgium) with various interception structures: Artificial screens with heights of 0.5, 0.75 and 1 m and screen open areas of 16, 36 and 63%; a row of plastic Christmas trees with heights of 0.5 and 0.75 m; and a potato canopy. The interception structure was positioned at 1 m from the field border. From the results it was found that type of border structure has a pronounced effect on the drift interception, while the height of the border structure had no significant effect.