Subtopic: Functional requirements, principles of working, construction and operation of manual, animal, tractor and renewable energy operated equipment for tillage, sowing, planting, fertilizer application, inter-cultivation, spraying, mowing, chaff cutting, harvesting and threshing
Question Statement:
A tractor-mounted boom sprayer has 16 flat-fan nozzles spaced at $50\text{ cm}$ along the boom. The forward operating speed is $4.8\text{ km/h}$. If the desired spray application volume is $200\text{ L/ha}$, calculate the required flow rate per nozzle in $\text{L/min}$ (round off to 2 decimal places).
Answer Key:
0.8
Step-by-Step Solution & Explanation
The formula relating application rate ($Q_{\text{app}}$ in $\text{L/ha}$), nozzle spacing ($w$ in $\text{m}$), forward speed ($v$ in $\text{km/h}$), and individual nozzle discharge ($q$ in $\text{L/min}$) is:
$Q_{\text{app}} = \frac{600 \times q}{w \times v}$
Rearranging for $q$:
$q = \frac{Q_{\text{app}} \times w \times v}{600} = \frac{200 \times 0.50 \times 4.8}{600} = \frac{480}{600} = 0.80\text{ L/min}$