Vibration Analysis of Pulse-Width-Modulated Nozzles in Vineyard Blast Sprayers

[EN] Spraying systems to protect crops against pests are still necessary to maintain food production at the rates demanded by the current population. However, today, it is crucial to use precision agriculture to reduce the negative effects of pesticides and other agrochemicals such as fungicides. In...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ortiz Sánchez, María Coral|||0000-0002-2744-6964, Torregrosa, A.|||0000-0003-1122-5187, Saiz Rubio, Verónica|||0000-0003-4188-3666, Rovira Más, Francisco|||0000-0002-2589-9281
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Repositorio:RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:riunet.upv.es:10251/205494
Acceso en línea:https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/205494
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:PWM nozzle
Vibration
Solenoid valve
PWM duty cycle
Blast sprayer
Transient response
INGENIERIA AGROFORESTAL
02.- Poner fin al hambre, conseguir la seguridad alimentaria y una mejor nutrición, y promover la agricultura sostenible
03.- Garantizar una vida saludable y promover el bienestar para todos y todas en todas las edades
06.- Garantizar la disponibilidad y la gestión sostenible del agua y el saneamiento para todos
12.- Garantizar las pautas de consumo y de producción sostenibles
13.- Tomar medidas urgentes para combatir el cambio climático y sus efectos
Descripción
Sumario:[EN] Spraying systems to protect crops against pests are still necessary to maintain food production at the rates demanded by the current population. However, today, it is crucial to use precision agriculture to reduce the negative effects of pesticides and other agrochemicals such as fungicides. In particular, pressure fluctuations related to transient states when using pulse-width-modulated nozzles (PMW) have been reported to decrease the accuracy of preset flow rates in air-assisted orchard sprayers. The objective of this paper is to analyze the vibrations induced in the spraying system of a vineyard blast sprayer controlled by pulse-width-modulated nozzles, considering the instantaneous duty cycle (DC) as the control variable. An air-assisted vineyard sprayer was modified to host 24 solenoid shutoff valves with hollow disc-cone nozzles. A triaxial accelerometer was mounted to track the effect of duty cycle (20%, 30%, 50%, and 70%). In addition to accelerations, high-speed images were recorded, and the pressure according to time and the flow were estimated. The hydraulic system of the sprayer, when controlled in real time by the PWM solenoids, created pulsating impacts at the nozzle level with the same frequency of 10 Hz of the PMW system. The impact effect was significantly higher for low duty cycles under 40% DC. In addition, to demonstrate the inaccuracy of opening and closing the valves at a precisely specified time, this study also confirmed the divergence between the theoretical duty cycles commanded by the sprayer's control unit and the actual ones measured in real time. The results of the analysis showed the difficulty of opening and closing the valves with precision to obtain accurate duty cycles in the practical implementation of smart sprayers and the importance of understanding the vibration effects of pulses in arrangements of multiple PWM nozzles working simultaneously.