Drift Potential Characteristics of a Flat Fan Nozzle: A Numerical and Experimental Study

Abstract

This study explores the drift potential characteristics of a flat fan nozzle. The atomization and drift characteristics of fan-shaped pressure nozzles were studied at a spraying height of 0.6 m and a lateral wind speed of 0–6 m/s through a combination of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses and wind tunnel experiments. The nozzle Lu 120-03 had a spraying pressure of 0.3 MPa. The results show that as the wind speed varies from 0 m/s to 6 m/s, the spray droplet spectrum also changes, and the droplet volume medium diameter increases. The cumulative droplet ratio and droplet spectral width of M oscillate within certain ranges. The amount of spray drift increases at higher wind speeds. The concentration of droplet deposition on the bottom of the wind tunnel gradually spreads downward in the wind direction. The determination coefficient R2 of the straight-line fitting of the drift characteristics is 0.982, which is highly consistent with the CFD simulation results. A CFD simulation-assisted wind tunnel test method, which is more convenient and repeatable than traditional field tests, is proposed to analyze the droplet spectrum and drift of Lechler series nozzles. The program can accurately simulate the actual drift and provide theoretical and data support for the optimization of atomization and drift characteristics of several types of flat fan nozzles under different spraying pressures and crosswinds in practical applications.