International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 177 (2021) 121516

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/hmt

Longitudinal drift behaviors and spatial transport efficiency for

spraying pesticide droplets
Shidong Xue, Xi Xi, Zhong Lan, Rongfu Wen, Supervision Writing - review & editing,
Xuehu Ma∗
State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Liaoning Key Laboratory of Clean Utilization of Chemical Resources, Institute of Chemical Engineering, School of
Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 16024, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Pesticide spraying for crop protection is to obtain adequate coverage on the target surfaces with a min-
Received 19 December 2020 imum of off-target waste. Understanding the spatial behaviors of spray droplets is critical to regulate
Revised 20 March 2021
pesticide deposition. Here, we investigated the droplet interaction behaviors in the dense region and the
Accepted 18 May 2021
transport efficiency of pesticide droplets in the dispersed region. The trajectories were tracked with the
discrete phase method verified by the wind tunnel experiment. In the dense region near the nozzle,
Keywords: coalescence between droplets smaller than 150 μm and the larger ones can obviously improve the ini-
Droplet interaction tial droplet size distribution. The reduction in the proportion of easily drifted droplets, contributed by
Pesticide transport droplet coalescence, can significantly increase droplet deposition onto the target region. When droplets
Spray drift
are gradually dispersing, the critical drift height is proposed and clarified by recognizing the falling dis-
Critical drift height
tance where the mass transport efficiency begins to reduce rapidly. Once the actual spray height exceeds
Droplet size distribution
the critical drift height, narrowing the initial relative span of droplets will not facilitate the pesticide
transport efficiency, even aggravating the drift loss. The evaporation losses of droplets smaller than 150
μm are more sensitive to the air temperature and relative humidity. The findings of droplet drift behav-
iors offer insights into pesticide spraying and also provide a strategy for drift regulation.
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Spray technology that can disperse the liquid into many small
droplets plays significant roles in various fields, such as fuel in-
jectors for diesel engines, spray painting for automobiles, spray
cooling for thermal management, agricultural spraying for pesti-
cide control, and so on [1–3]. Chemical pesticide spraying is an
efficient and powerful method to prevent biological aggression in
agriculture for national food security. Rational utilization of chemi-
cal pesticide can significantly improve agricultural productivity and
crop quality. However, the actual deposition efficiency during field
application is inadequate due to the wind-enabled spatial drift and
interface run-off from crop leaves [4,5]. Spray drift was defined by
ISO [6], saying that “A portion of the spray falls to the ground or
quickly evaporates and another is dispersed into the atmosphere,
leaving the area being treated, what is called spray drift.” The
Chinese Ministry of Agriculture just announced that the pesticide
utilization efficiency for three major food crops (rice, corn, and
wheat) is 40.6% in 2020. It was clearly stated that 40–55% of the
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: xuehuma@dlut.edu.cn (X. Ma).
amount of pesticides applied could move offsite via spray drift, and
such values were confirmed by studies with values ranging from
20 to 50% of the applied dose [7]. Also, the authors summarized
the drift and deposition ratios of droplets applied in different or-
chards, showing that 30~ 50% of the sprayed amount can be lost
to the air during spray application [8]. Undoubtedly, spray drift
will pose an irreversible threat to aquatic animals, sensitive plants,
ecology environment, and human health [9,10].
The spatial transport efficiency of the pesticide is highly de-
pendent on droplet characteristics, climate conditions, spray op-
erations, and canopy structures, which can largely determine the
biological effect of active ingredients contained in the formulation
[11,12]. Among them, the diameter distribution of spray droplets
is widely considered as one of the most important factors in drift
loss, where the droplets smaller than 100 μm are prone to drift
out of target area or evaporate into atmosphere [12,13]. Regula-
tions of the orifice width, operation pressure, and liquid phys-
iochemical properties can increase the volume median diameter
and thus improve the anti-drift potential of pesticide droplets
[14,15]. Meanwhile, narrowing the initial relative span (RS) of spray
droplets, RS=(Dv90 -Dv10 )/Dv50 , defined as the initial uniformity of
droplets released from the nozzle, can effectively reduce the drift

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2021.121516
0017-9310/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Xue, X. Xi, Z. Lan et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 177 (2021) 121516

Nomenclature Sc schmidt number

Sct turbulent Schmidt number
ASAE American society of agricultural engineers Sh sherwood number
CFD computational fluid dynamics Sf momentum source term (kg•m−2 •s−2 )
RANS Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes Sh volumetric heat source term (kg•m−1 •s−3 )
RH relative humidity Sm mass source term (kg•m−3 •s−1 )
RS relative span T temperature (K)
USDA-ARS United states department of agriculture- Tref reference temperature (K)
agricultural research service t time (s)
WSP water sensitive paper tcross eddy crossing time (s)
Ap surface area of spray droplet (m2 ) te eddy time (s)
b actual collision parameter u velocity (m•s−1 )
bcrit critical collision parameter ua air velocity (m•s−1 )
Cd drag coefficient ua ’ air fluctuating velocity (m•s−1 )
Cd,sphere drag coefficient of a spherical droplet Vc cell volume (m3 )
Cp heat capacity of spray droplet (J•kg−1 •K−1 ) v air velocity vector (m•s−1 )
Cs vapor concentration at the droplet surface We weber number
(kmol•m−3 ) x downwind distance from the nozzle (m)
C∞ vapor concentration of the bulk flow Y random number
(kmol•m−3 ) y the falling distance of spray droplets (m)
cp,i heat capacity of vapor (J•kg−1 •K−1 ) Ydp mass fraction of droplets with diameter
Dm molecular diffusivity of water vapor in the greater than dp
air (m2 •s−1 ) Yi local mass fraction of water vapor
Dv10 , Dv50, Dv90 volume diameter below which smaller yd spray droplet distortion
droplets constitute 10, 50 and 90% of the
Greek
total volume, respectively
 incremental amount
dp droplet diameter (μm)
∇ gradient operator
d¯p mean diameter of spray droplets (m)
μ air molecular viscosity (kg•m−1 •s−1 )
e internal energy (J•kg−1 )
μt turbulence viscosity (kg•m−1 •s−1 )
Fother saffman lift force and virtual mass force act-
ε turbulence dissipation rate (m2 •s−3 )
ing on the droplets (m•s−2 )
ρ density (kg•m−3 )
g gravitational acceleration (m•s−2 )
σ surface tension of spray droplet (kg•s−2 )
h convective heat transfer coefficient
ξ normally distributed random number
(W•m2 •K−1 )
τ viscous stress tensor (Pa)
hfg latent heat (J•kg−1 )
τp spray droplet relaxation time (s)
hj enthalpy of water vapor (J•kg−1 )
−
→ Subscripts
Jj diffusion flux of water vapor (kg•m−2 •s−1 )
L lager spray droplet
K thermal conductivity of air (W•m−1 •K−1 )
S smaller spray droplet
k turbulent kinetic energy (m2 •s−2 )
a air phase
kc mass transfer coefficient (m•s−1 )
p spray droplet phase
keff effective conductivity (W•m−1 •K−1 )
Le eddy length scale (m)
Mp molecular weight (kg•kmol−1 )
loss and improve the uniformity of deposited droplets [16]. At
mACUM (%) accumulative mass fraction of all spray
present, the initial relative span of droplets produced by most agri-
droplets
cultural nozzles is varied and irregular [17]. As a result, the impacts
mp spray droplet mass (kg)
of RS on droplet behaviors and pesticide transport are infrequently
mp,0 initial mass of spray droplets (kg)
and detailedly investigated in the previous studies. Therefore, it is
mp,i mass of the ith spray droplet (kg)
necessary to supplement and further explore the effect of initial
m̄p average droplet mass in a control volume
distribution on droplet behaviors and pesticide transport efficiency
(kg)
for guiding nozzle design and optimization.
m˙ p,0 initial mass flowrate of droplet stream
The field experiments have offered some insights into the pes-
(kg•s−1 )
ticide transport and deposition efficiency on various canopy sur-
m˙ p mass flowrate of droplet stream (kg•s−1 )
faces [18–20]. The pesticide transport and utilization efficiency can
Nu nusselt number
be evaluated by image processing technology and chemical quanti-
n actual collision number
tative analysis, e.g., the water sensitive papers (WSPs), Mylar cards
n2 the number of droplets in the smaller
and filter papers [21–24]. However, the transport efficiency is eas-
droplet parcels
ily affected by the local sampling method and unsettled weather
n̄ mean expected collision number
in the field [25,26]. Numerical simulation with excellent flexibility
P poisson probability distribution
and controllability has been widely applied in the field of agricul-
Pr prandtl number
ture [8]. More importantly, the spatial trajectories of spray droplets
p pressure (Pa)
can be tracked to understand the details on the droplet deposi-
R spread parameter
tion efficiency. In recent years, a series of numerical models have
Re reynolds number
been proposed to investigate aerial spraying [27,28], orchard op-
eration [29–31] and ground application [32]. These models have

2
S. Xue, X. Xi, Z. Lan et al.
Fig. 1. Schematic of CFD numerical simulation.
successfully predicted the droplet deposition efficiency on vari-
ous canopies. Spray machineries and operation parameters could
be also further optimized to maximize the coverage and efficiency
[33].
Most efforts, either experimental or numerical research, have
been devoted to the initial diameter distribution and final deposi-
tion efficiency on the target crops. However, the spatial movement
behaviors of droplets between the nozzle and the target are lack-
ing, e.g., the droplet deformation, collision, and evaporation [34–
36]. As an intermediate bridge, the spatial droplet behaviors can
not only provide the feedback for diameter regulation, but also re-
flect the underlying mechanisms on pesticide deposition.
In this study, we focus on the spatial movement process of
droplets between the nozzle and the target. The trajectories of
droplets with different initial diameter distribution are tracked
with the verified discrete phase models when droplets are grad-
ually dispersing into the atmosphere from the dense distribution
near the nozzle. The droplet interaction behaviors and their im-
pacts on the diameter distribution and pesticide transport effi-
ciency are explored in the dense region. And the critical drift
heights for droplets with different sizes are proposed for reduc-
ing the drift loss of pesticide when droplets are gradually dispers-
ing. Besides, the evaporation behaviors of droplets with different
sizes are investigated and compared under different atmospheric
conditions This work can facilitate the understanding of the spa-
tial behaviors of pesticide droplets, and also guide the proposal of
regulation strategies for drift reduction.
2. Models and methods
2.1. CFD simulation and mathematical models
The spatial behaviors and transport efficiency of spray droplets
between the nozzle and target surface were investigated in this
work. The spraying process of chemical pesticide is implemented
in an open spatial environment. A rectangular parallelepiped zone
of 7.0 m × 1.5 m × 2.0 m was built up as a computational domain.
As shown in Fig. 1, spray droplets were injected into the domain
at the position of (0, 0, 1.0) in a hollow cone pattern with the cone
angle of 80°, the initial velocity of 15 m•s−1 and the flowrate of in-
jected liquid is 0.015 kg•s−1 . The measured properties of the water
liquid fully mixed with 0.2% of functional adjuvant were used in
this work, with the density of 976.91 kg•m−3 , the viscosity of 1.21
3
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 177 (2021) 121516
mPa•s, and surface tension of 0.032 N•m−1 . The crosswind with
a uniform velocity distribution was assumed to horizontally blow
into the computational domain, ignoring the small velocity varia-
tion within the domain height of 1.5 m. The atmospheric instabil-
ity was not included, implying that the temperature was uniformly
distributed above the ground. The Eulerian-Lagrangian method was
adopted in the numerical simulation due to the low volume frac-
tion occupied by spray droplets. The air phase was treated as a
continuum by solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS)
equations in the Eulerian coordinate, while spray droplets were
tracked in the Lagrangian frame. As shown in Fig. 2, the air ve-
locity in the domain was computed by solving the mass, momen-
tum, and energy conservation equations (See Appendix A). The
spatial trajectories of spray droplets were tracked by solving the
droplet movement equation. The stochastic collision and evapora-
tion of spray droplets were also considered. The Lagrangian models
for the droplet phase are listed as follows. The details on the nu-
merical algorithm can be found in Appendix B. During calculation,
the air phase and the droplet phase were coupling with each other
through source terms. Different vertical planes in the domain were
monitored and sampled to record the instantaneous information of
spray droplets, such as the diameter, velocity, mass and position,
when they were passing through the monitored planes.
2.1.1. The droplet size distribution
The Rosin-Rammler function [37], one of the widely used de-
scriptions for particle size distribution, was adopted to characterize
the initial diameter distribution of spray droplets generated by the
nozzle in Eq. (1).
R
Yd p = e−(dp /dp ) (1)
where, dp is the diameter of injected spray droplet, Yd p is the mass
fraction of droplets with diameter greater than dp ; d¯p is the mean
diameter of spray droplets and R is the spread parameter.
2.1.2. The droplet movement model
The trajectory of spray droplet in the air was predicted by con-
sidering the droplet inertia with the drag force, buoyance force,
Saffman lift force, and virtual mass force acting on the droplet, as
shown in Eq. (2).
d up 18μCd Re g ( ρp − ρa )
= ( ua − up ) + + Fother (2)
dt 24ρp dp2 ρp
S. Xue, X. Xi, Z. Lan et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 177 (2021) 121516

Fig. 2. Schematic of the models for air phase and spray droplet phase.

2.1.3. The droplet stochastic collision model

ρa dp |up − ua | Droplet-droplet collision was included by using the O’Riourke’s
Re = (3)
μ collision algorithm in this study, which was based on the assump-
where, ρa is the air density of 1.225 kg•m−3 , μ is the air viscos- tion that two droplet parcels might collide if they were in the same
ity of 1.7894 × 10−5 kg•m−1 •s−1 , g is the gravitational accelera- computational cell [38]. And the expected number of collisions be-
tion of 9.80 m•s−2 , Re is the relative Reynolds number, Fother rep- tween two droplet parcels was determined by Eq. (10). The actual
resents Saffman lift force and virtual mass force that is acted on number of collisions, n, was determined by the Poisson probabil-
the droplet. ity distribution in Eq. (11). The outcome of droplet-droplet colli-
The drag coefficient of spray droplet was calculated by the dy- sion included coalescence for b<bcrit and bounce for b≥bcrit , where
namic drag model. The droplet deformation during spatial traveling b was the actual collision parameter calculated by random num-
is based on the assumption of the linear variation of the drag with ber, Y. And bcrit was the critical collision parameter determined by
droplet distortion. Eq. (13). The size and velocity of newly developed droplets were
calculated by solving mass and momentum conservation equations.
Cd = Cd,sphere (1 + 2.632yd ) (4)
n2 π (dL + dS ) |uL − uS |t
2
 n̄ = (10)
0.424
 , Re > 100 0 4Vc
Cd,sphere = (5)
24
Re
1 + 1
6
R e2/3 , Re ≤ 10 0 0
n̄n
where, Cd,sphere is the drag coefficient of a spherical droplet and P (n ) = e−n ( ) (11)
n!
yd is the droplet distortion varying from 0 (no distortion, sphere
shape) to 1 (maximum distortion, disc shape). √
( dL + dS ) Y
The effect of turbulence on the droplet dispersion was intro- b= (12)
duced by the Discrete Random Walk (DRW) model, which substi-
2
tutes the average velocity, ua , in Eq. (2) with the instantaneous air
  
velocity, ua + ua ’. The fluctuating velocity, ua ’, was calculated by 3 2  
Eq. (6). dL + dS

min 1.0, 2.4 dL dL dL
 bcrit = − 2.4 +2.7
2 We dS dS dS
2
ua = ξ k (6)
3 (13)
where, ξ is normally distributed random number. The random
number was valid over the smaller of the eddy lifetime in ρp (uL − uS )2 (dL + dS )
We = (14)
Eq. (7) and the eddy crossing time in Eq. (8). The instantaneous 2σ
velocity was updated by obtaining a new random number.
where, n̄ is the mean expected collision number between two
k parcels, and the subscript L and S represent the lager droplet and
te ≈ 0.30 (7)
ε the smaller droplet, respectively. t is the time step size, Vc is the
  cell volume, and n2 is the number of droplets in the smaller droplet
Le parcels.
tcross = −τp ln 1 − ( ) (8)
τp |ua − up |
2.1.4. The droplet evaporation model
ρp dp2 24
τp = (9) Spray droplets exchange the mass and energy with air in form
18μ Cd Re of convective and latent heat transfer during evaporation. And the
where, te and tcross are the eddy time and eddy crossing time, re- heat and mass exchange were quantified by Eqs. (15) and (17),
spectively; Le is the eddy length scale and τp is the droplet relax- where the mass transfer of spray droplets was controlled by dif-
ation time. fusion. The mass flux and heat flux between spray droplets and

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S. Xue, X. Xi, Z. Lan et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 177 (2021) 121516

Fig. 3. (a) Schematic of droplet spraying experiment. (b) Image of wind tunnel apparatus.

air were respectively coupled with source terms in Eqs. (A.6) and The diameter distribution of spray droplets at the position of
(A.8). And the mass and heat transfer coefficients were calculated 0.1 m below the TR80 005 nozzle was firstly measured by the
by Eq. (16) and Eq. (18), respectively. laser particle size analyzer (Winner 318C, China) under the pres-
d mp sure of 0.3 MPa. The measured droplet diameters were fitted into
= −Ap Mp kc (Cs − C∞ ) (15) the Rosin-Rammler distribution as the initial conditions of numer-
dt
ical simulation. Then, the nozzle was installed in the wind tunnel
kc dp with a height of 0.7 m and the WSPs were arrayed at the differ-
Sh = = 2 .0 + 0 .6 Re 1/2 S c 1/3 (16) ent downwind positions from 1.5 m to 3.5 m with an interval of
Dm
0.5 m to collect drifted spray droplets. The wind generation sys-
dTp d mp tem is composed of an array of small axial-flow fans. The damping
mpCp = hAp (Ta − Tp ) − hf g (17)
dt dt screens and honeycomb net are added after the fans, ensuring that
the wind is generated horizontally and stably with a uniform ve-
hdp
Nu = = 2 .0 + 0 .6 Re 1/2 P r 1/3 (18) locity. The variation of velocity at the measured point is less than
K 1% and the turbulent level is less than 5%. The air velocity could
where, Mp is the molecular weight of 18.015 kg•kmol−1 , Cp is the be regulated by adjusting the input power of the fans, and the
droplet heat capacity of 4.182 × 103 J•kg−1 •K−1 , kc is mass trans- velocity magnitude was measured by the thermal anemometer. In
fer coefficient determined by Sh, a combination of Re and Sc in Eq. the spraying experiments, the air velocity in the wind tunnel was
(B.13), where Sc = μ/(ρ Dm ), Dm is the vapor molecular diffusiv- adjusted to 2.5 m•s−1 and then the spraying lasted for 3 s after
ity in the air of 2.655 × 10−5 m2 •s−1 . h is convective heat trans- the air flow was stable. After the spraying stopped, the WSPs were
fer coefficient determined by Nu, a combination of Re and Pr in not collected and marked until spray droplets in the wind tunnel
Eq. (B.15), where P r = Cp μ/K, K is the air thermal conductivity of had completely deposited. Finally, the WSPs were scanned with an
0.0242 W•m−1 •K−1 . 8-bite gray scale and resolution at 600 dpi to obtain the images
of deposited spray droplets. Using the DepositScan software devel-
2.2. Droplet spraying experiments oped by USDA-ARS [39], the deposition areas of droplets were au-
tomatically identified for calculating the actual individual droplet
The reliability of CFD models was evaluated by wind tunnel ex- size. The mean diameter of spray droplets deposited on the three
periments as illustrated in Fig. 3, where the mean diameters of WSPs at each downwind position were determined to assess the
spray droplets on different downwind positions were measured. applicability and accuracy of CFD models.
The detailed procedures are presented as follows.

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S. Xue, X. Xi, Z. Lan et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 177 (2021) 121516

ent downwind locations, indicating the applicability of CFD models

to predict the spatial behaviors of spray droplets released from the
nozzle.

3.2. Droplet behavior transition and transport efficiency with the

falling distance

The total transport efficiency of spray droplets, defined as the

accumulative mass fraction of droplets with different sizes, de-
termines the biological effect of pesticide. The accumulative mass
fraction of droplets within 2 m downwind from the nozzle at dif-
ferent falling planes were calculated by Eq. (19) to obtain the spa-
tial mass transport efficiency.

n
mp,i
i=1
mACUM (% ) = × 100(i = 1, 2, 3, ..., n ) (19)
mp,0

where, mp,i is the mass of the ith spray droplet (kg), mp,0 is the to-
tal mass of spray droplets initially injected into the computational
domain (kg), and mACUM (%) is the accumulative mass fraction of all
Fig. 4. Comparison of the mean diameter of deposited spray droplets in the exper-
spray droplets. The mass fraction changes of the droplets with the
iments and CFD simulation (The square points are the experiment results; the line
is the model results).
falling distance were calculated by Eq. (20) to explore the droplet
behaviors.


dp,2

dp,2
3. Results and discussions my1 my2
dp,1 dp,1
m ( % ) = × 100 − × 100 (20)
3.1. Model verification mp,0 mp,0
dp,2 dp,2
 
Fig. 4 shows the mean diameters of spray droplets that are de- where, my1 and my2 are the mass of spray droplets with di-
posited on the WSPs at the air velocity of 2.5 m•s−1 . The mean dp,1 dp,1
droplet diameter monotonously decreases with the increase of ameter ranging from dp,1 to dp,2 in the plane y=y1 and y=y2 (kg),
downwind distances from the nozzle, indicating the longer drift respectively. m (%) is the mass fraction change of spray droplets
distance for the smaller droplets. Comparing with simulation re- in the region from y=y1 to y=y2 .
sults, the experimental droplet diameter in the wind tunnel is Take the result under the conditions of Dv50 =143.83 μm,
slightly larger. The overestimated mean diameters determined by RS=0.84, and ua =2.0 m•s−1 as an example to explain the typical
image processing technology could be attributed to the droplet characteristics of droplet behaviors and transport efficiency. Fig. 6
overlapping on the WSPs as displayed in Fig. 5. The Dv50 of spray illustrates the transport process of pesticide droplets after leaving
droplets generated by the nozzle TR80 005 under 0.3 MPa is the nozzle. Spray droplets are gradually dispersing into the atmo-
86.87 μm, belonging to the “Very Fine” category in the ASAE S572 sphere from the initial state of dense distribution under the ac-
droplet size classification standard [40], which can cause higher tion of air. The evolution of total transport efficiency of droplets,
overlapping coverage on the WSPs on the longer downwind po- mACUM (%), and the mass fraction change of droplets with different
sitions. Overall, the relative errors of the mean diameters obtained sizes, m (%), with the falling distance are respectively depicted in
from simulation and experiment are all smaller than 10% at differ- Figs. 7 and 8. When spray droplets are falling with a distance of

Fig. 5. Overlapping spray droplets on the WSP identified by DepositScan software (a) Original image of spray droplets on the WSP; (b) An 8-bite gray scale image scanned
at 600 dpi; (c) Spray droplets identified by DepositScan (Experiment results).

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S. Xue, X. Xi, Z. Lan et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 177 (2021) 121516

Fig. 6. Transport process of pesticide droplets during spatial motion [(a) shows the droplet collision behaviors in the dense distribution region near the nozzle; (b) illustrates
that the droplets can deposit within the target zone; (c) illustrates that the droplets can deposit onto the edge of target zone or the droplets are just about to drift out of
the boundary; (d) illustrates that the droplets are drifting out of the target zone;].

0.1 m, there is almost no reduction (about 0.35%) in the accumu-

lative mass fraction (Fig. 7), indicating that spray droplets nearly
have not drifted out of 2 m in the downwind. However, the mass
fraction changes for droplets with different sizes in this region are
rather obvious (Fig. 8), showing an increased proportion for larger
droplets and a reduced proportion of smaller droplets. It suggests
that the interaction between spray droplets is frequent and domi-
nant in the dense region, as illustrated in Fig. 6(a).
When droplets are continuously falling within the region be-
tween y=0.1 and y=0.5 m, the accumulative mass fraction reduces
slowly due to the droplet evaporation and slight drift (Fig. 7).
And the mass fraction changes for droplets with different sizes
are smaller than 5% (Fig. 8). It indicates that the droplet inter-
actions have weakened due to the dispersion of droplets. And
most droplets can deposit within the target area, as illustrated in
Fig. 6(b).
When spray droplets are reaching the height of y=0.5 m, the
accumulative mass fraction begins to reduce rapidly and consider-
ably, indicating that spray droplets are gradually drifting beyond
the target area, as illustrated in Fig. 6(d). For example, the trans-
port efficiency of pesticide reduces rapidly from 97.10 to 52.88%
when droplets with the initial RS of 0.84 are falling from y=0.5 m
Fig. 7. Accumulative mass fraction of spray droplets with the falling distance
to y=1.0 m. It suggests that a critical drift height (y∗ ) exists for the
(RS=0.84 and ua =2.0 m•s−1 , model results).
transport efficiency of pesticide droplets during the spraying pro-

Fig. 8. Mass fraction change of spray droplets with the falling distance of every 0.1 m (RS=0.84, ua =2.0 m•s−1 , model results).

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S. Xue, X. Xi, Z. Lan et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 177 (2021) 121516

Fig. 9. Model results of the size distribution of spray droplets at different falling distances [(a) shows the initial diameter distribution of injected droplets; (b) shows the
droplet diameter distribution after droplet interactions; (c) shows the droplet diameter distribution when droplets are falling a distance of 0.5 m].

Fig. 10. Mass fraction change of spray droplets in the region from y=0 to y=0.1 m (Model results).

cess, as illustrated in Fig. 6(c). When the spray height is less than Table 1
The initial droplet size distribution of spray
y∗ , most droplets can deposit within the target area. Otherwise,
droplets with different RS.
droplets are gradually drifting out of the target area, resulting in
rapid loss and waste of pesticide. Dv10 /μm Dv50 /μm Dv90 /μm RS
In the following sections, the droplet interaction behaviors and 63.76 130.17 232.98 1.30
their impacts on the transport efficiency are further discussed in 70.21 139.66 221.04 1.08
the dense region. During the process of droplet dispersion into the 80.83 143.83 201.65 0.84
98.67 148.80 187.95 0.60
atmosphere, the critical drift heights for droplets with different
sizes under various air velocities, and the droplet evaporation be-
havior under two typical atmospheric conditions are investigated
to provide the guideline for field spraying. gate the droplet interaction behaviors in this region, the evolu-
tions of droplet size and number included in the first released
3.3. Droplet coalescence and its impact on the diameter distribution stream are shown in Fig. 11. It was found that the diameters of
and mass transport efficiency droplets smaller than 150 μm are nearly constant but the droplet
numbers contained in the parcel are considerably reduced. On the
In this section, the interaction behaviors of spray droplets with contrary, the diameters of droplets larger than 150 μm are in-
different RS are explored in the dense region from y=0 to y=0.1 m. creased greatly but the droplet numbers are constant. It suggests
The initial size distributions of droplets are depicted in Fig. 9(a). that smaller droplets are merged by bigger ones, since no spray
And the characteristic parameters of droplet size, Dv10 , Dv50 , Dv90 , droplets have drifted or completely evaporated after falling a dis-
are shown in Table 1. It can be seen that more spray droplets are tance of 0.1 m. Therefore, the individual mass fraction evolution
distributed between 10 0 and 20 0 μm with the reduction of RS. of spray droplets with different sizes is more likely originated
Meanwhile, the proportions of droplets smaller than 100 μm or from the coalescence between droplets below 150 μm and those
larger than 200 μm gradually decrease. It suggests that the diam- above 150 μm, since the diameter of coalesced droplet induced by
eters of spray droplets with the smaller RS are distributed more unequal-sized droplet collision is much closer to the bigger one,
uniformly. as illustrated in Fig. 12. Also, previous studies have proved that in-
Fig. 10 shows the mass fraction change of spray droplets with creasing the size ratio of multiple droplets could facilitate their co-
different RS in the dense region. It is shown that the proportion alescence behaviors [41].
of spray droplets smaller than 150 μm significantly reduces while In addition, the impacts of RS on droplet coalescence are ex-
that of larger spray droplets greatly increases. To further investi- plored. The mass reduction of droplets in diameter between 50 and

8
S. Xue, X. Xi, Z. Lan et al.
Fig. 11. The change of diameter and number of spray droplets included in the first released stream (Model results).
Fig. 12. Schematic of the evolution of droplet size distribution due to the coalescence between spray droplets with different sizes.
100 μm gradually increases with the increase of RS, while the re-
duction trend for droplets in diameter between 100 and 150 μm
is opposite (Fig. 10). This is because that more droplets are dis-
tributed between 50 and 100 μm when the RS is larger, such as
1.30 and 1.08, which are easily merged by other droplets during
collision. As the RS reduces, however, the proportion of droplets
in diameter between 100 and 150 μm are raising, leading to more
frequent collisions involved by these droplets. It is suggested that
the subject of droplet collision can be selectively regulated by
modifying the initial RS, especially for multi-nozzle spraying.
The effect of droplet coalescence on the diameter distribution
and mass transport efficiency deserves much attention. Fig. 9(b)
displays the diameter distributions of droplets with different RS
after coalescence. It shows that droplet coalescence in the dense
region can improve the uniformity of droplets by reducing the pro-
portion of smaller droplets. For example, the proportion of droplets
below 100 μm has reduced by 20.92%, 15.37%, 11.14%, and 5.61%,
respectively for the initial RS of 1.30, 1.08, 0.84, and 0.60, as shown
in Fig. 10. The improvement effects are obvious for droplets with
larger RS but slight for those with smaller RS. Although coales-
cence behaviors are more frequent for droplets with larger RS, the
droplet uniformity in the y=0.1 m plane still increases with the re-
duction of RS, illustrating that the improvement effects are limited
by the difference of initial RS.
In addition to improving the initial droplet distribution, the re-
duction of smaller droplets can also improve the anti-drift ability
and reduce the spatial drift loss. In the region between y=0.1 m
and y=0.5 m, most droplets can deposit within the target area,
which is largely attributed to the droplet coalescence near the noz-
zle. The diameter distribution of droplets deposited onto y=0.5 m
is displayed in Fig. 9(c). It shows that the deposition uniformity
9
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 177 (2021) 121516
can be improved by reducing the proportion of smaller droplets,
as well as narrowing the initial RS of spray droplets.
3.4. Critical drift height for spray droplets with different sizes
When spray droplets are moving towards the target, the falling
distance at which the mass fraction of droplets begins to reduce
rapidly is defined as the critical drift height. It is mainly deter-
mined by the coupling effects of droplet diameter and air velocity
in the field spraying. The off-target movements of spray droplets
can not only limit the utilization efficiency of pesticide but also
cause adverse impacts on the surrounding sensitive crops. There-
fore, it is necessary to investigate the effects of the droplet diam-
eter, the RS of initial droplets, and the air velocity on the critical
drift height for the design of spray height in the field.
The effect of RS on the mass fraction of different droplets with
the falling distance is depicted in Fig. 13(a)~(c). It shows that re-
gardless of how large the RS is, the proportions of spray droplets
with diameter between 100 μm and 150 μm reduce gently in the
region of y=0.1–0.5 m, but begin to reduce sharply after they pass
through the plane of 0.5 m from the nozzle under the air velocity
of 2.0 m•s−1 . It is indicated that the droplets with diameter be-
tween 100 and 150 μm begin to drift beyond the boundary of the
target area after falling a distance of 0.5 m. Also, the spatial tra-
jectories of droplets show the drift behaviors (marked as “ 1 ” in
Fig. 14). Therefore, the critical drift height for spray droplets be-
tween 100 and 150 μm under the air velocity of 2.0 m•s−1 is 0.5
m. Similarly, the proportion of spray droplets between 150 and 200
μm reduce suddenly when they pass through the y=0.3 m plane
under different RS, suggesting that the critical drift height is 0.7 m.
The drift behaviors are also presented in Fig. 14 (marked as “ 2 ”).
S. Xue, X. Xi, Z. Lan et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 177 (2021) 121516

Fig. 13. Mass fraction of spray droplets with different diameters (a)–(c), and the accumulative mass fraction of all spray droplets (d) with the falling distance under various
RS (ua =2.0 m•s−1 , model results).

Fig. 14. The spatial trajectories of droplets travelling for 1.15 s (RS=0.84, ua =2.0 m•s−1 , model results).

10
S. Xue, X. Xi, Z. Lan et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 177 (2021) 121516

Fig. 15. Mass fraction of spray droplets with different diameters with the falling distance under various air velocities (model results).

In contrast, the droplets between 200 and 250 μm tend to depo- both the air velocity and the droplet diameter. As illustrated in
sition within the target area with fewer drift losses. It indicates Fig. 16(d), the total transport efficiency of pesticide is significantly
that, in general, the RS mainly determines the mass distribution of affected by the air velocity. The total drift losses are respectively
initial droplets and causes weak effects on the critical drift height 2.54, 2.94,10.76, and 24.29% when the droplets are falling a dis-
of individual droplets. Instead, the critical drift height significantly tance of 0.5 m. As droplets continue to fall, the drift losses are con-
reduces as the droplet diameter decreases. siderably affected by the air velocity. The total drift losses are in-
However, the accumulative transport efficiency of pesticide is creasing to 8.37, 47.12, 85.50, and 96.01% when the droplets falling
affected by the RS and closely correlated with the falling distance a distance of 1.0 m, showing that higher air velocity in the field
height, as demonstrated in Fig. 14(d). It shows that the advantages causes more serious drift loss. And it’s not suitable for pesticide
contributed by the reduction of RS can play a positive significance spraying in the field when the air velocity exceeds 3 m•s−1 , espe-
on the transport efficiency within 0.8 m below the nozzle. How- cially for the droplets smaller than 150 μm.
ever, the reduction of RS gradually causes negative impacts on the
transport efficiency when spray droplets continue to move. When
3.5. Evaporation loss for spray droplets with different sizes
droplets are falling a distance of 1.0 m, the drift losses are 45.70%,
46.18%, 47.12%, and 50.01%, respectively for droplets with the ini-
Spray droplets continue to exchange mass and heat with the at-
tial RS=1.30, 1.08, 0.84, and 0.60. It indicates that narrowing the
mosphere during spatial motion, leading to the diameter reduction
initial RS of spray droplets can facilitate the pesticide transport
of droplet and the mass loss of pesticide. The spatial evaporation
within the limited falling distance. Once the actual spray height
of pesticide droplet is diffusion-controlled and is mainly affected
exceeds the critical drift height of the required droplets, it will ag-
by the droplet diameter, atmospheric temperature, T, and relative
gravate the drift losses of pesticide and ecological risks, especially
humidity, RH.
for the unmanned aerial vehicle pesticide spraying with higher
Fig. 16(a) shows the diameter evolution of different droplets un-
spray heights in the field.
der two typical atmospheric conditions (middle temperature and
The effects of air velocity on the critical heights of different
middle relative humidity; high temperature and low relative hu-
droplets are clarified by the recognition of a sharp reduction point
midity). And the corresponding diameter reduction ratio and mass
in the transport efficiency, as shown in Fig. 15(a)–(c). It was found
loss ratio are respectively displayed in Fig. 16(b) and (c). It could
that almost all the droplets between 100 and 250 μm do not drift
be found that the diameter reduction ratios and the mass loss ra-
under the air velocity of 1 m•s−1 . As the air velocity increases,
tios of droplets greater than 150 μm are rather smaller than other
the mass fraction gradually reduces with the falling distance, lead-
droplets when they fall onto the target. It suggests that the evap-
ing to the increasing spatial drift loss. In contrast, the air velocity
oration losses of these droplets are not obvious and can be ne-
causes more significant impacts on the critical height of smaller
glected. However, the droplets smaller than 80 μm tend to evapo-
droplets, especially for the droplets less than 150 μm. The criti-
rate rapidly, even evaporate totally under middle atmospheric con-
cal drift heights of different droplets under the normal spraying
ditions. And the higher atmospheric temperature and lower rela-
atmosphere condition are extracted and summarized in Table 2.
tive humidity will accelerate the evaporation rate of these droplets.
It suggests that the critical drift height decreases linearly with
It indicates that the initial portion of these droplets is supposed

11
S. Xue, X. Xi, Z. Lan et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 177 (2021) 121516

Fig. 16. The diameter evolution (a), the corresponding diameter reduction ratio (b), and mass loss ratio (c) of different droplets under two typical atmospheric conditions
(ua = 2 m•s−1 , model results).

12
S. Xue, X. Xi, Z. Lan et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 177 (2021) 121516

Table 2
The critical drift heights of droplets with different diameters under various velocities.

Critical drift height (y∗ ) ua =1.0 m•s−1 ua =2.0 m•s−1 ua =3.0 m•s−1 ua =4.0 m•s−1

dp =100-150 μm None 0.5 m 0.4 m 0.3 m

dp =150-200 μm None 0.7 m 0.6 m 0.5 m
dp =200-250 μm None >1.0 m 0.8 m 0.7 m

Note: “None” means that droplets can almost deposit within 2 m downwind from the nozzle.

to be reduced as much as possible due to the serious evaporation velocities. Once the actual spray height exceeds the critical drift
loss. In contrast, the evaporation rates of droplets with diameter height, the advantages contributed by the smaller initial RS on
ranging from 100 and 150 μm are more sensitive to atmospheric the pesticide transport efficiency will gradually disappear, even
conditions. Under the normal condition with T=30°C and RH=60%, worsen.
the diameter reduction ratios of these droplets range from 4 to (4) The atmospheric conditions cause more significant impacts on
14%, and the corresponding mass losses are between 12 and 35%. the evaporation loss of droplets smaller than 150 μm.
Under the extreme condition with T=40°C and RH=30%, the di-
ameter reduction ratios and mass loss ratios are respectively rang- Declaration of Competing Interest
ing from 12 to 38%, and from 31 and 76%. Generally, the droplets
between 100 and 150 μm have good wettability onto the target The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
surface and excellent translocation ability inside the leaves. There- cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
fore, operators should avoid pesticide spraying in the field under influence the work reported in this paper.
extreme atmospheric conditions. Otherwise, functional adjuvants,
such as vegetable and mineral oil additives, are preferentially rec- CRediT authorship contribution statement
ommended to be initially mixed with the pesticide liquid to regu-
late the structure of interfacial film for inhibiting the evaporation Shidong Xue: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Data curtion,
losses. Investigation, Methodology, Software, Writing – original draft. Xi
The spatial behaviors of droplets not only determine the drift Xi: Methodology, Writing – review & editing. Zhong Lan: Soft-
loss of pesticide, but also provide feedback for the front-end de- ware, Formal analysis. Xuehu Ma: Supervision, Funding acquisi-
sign, such as nozzle selection and adjuvant synthesis, and provide tion, Writing – review & editing.
initial conditions for the back-end application, such as interfacial
spreading and internal translocation of plant leaves. As a whole, Acknowledgments
regulation of spatial drift loss can be realized from two aspects.
On the one hand, the innovative design of new-typed nozzles and This work was financially supported by the National Key Re-
adjuvants can decrease the proportion of easily drifting and evapo- search Development Program of China (2017YFD0200304).
rating droplets, thus reducing the relative span (RS) and improving
the uniformity of initial droplets. It’s of great significance for in- Appendix A. The Eulerian model for air phase
creasing pesticide utilization efficiency to make more droplets dis-
tributed in the optimal diameter range required by the target. On The air phase was treated as a continuum by solving the
the other hand, active human interventions can be applied to regu- Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations in the Eulerian
late the droplet collision behaviors during spatial motion, facilitat- coordinate. The air mass, velocity and temperature were respec-
ing the coalescence process of easily drifting droplets and reducing tively computed by solving the mass, momentum, and energy con-
the drift loss of pesticide. servation equations. The species transport equation of individual
component was considered since droplet evaporation can change
4. Conclusion the composition of air phase.
Mass conservation equation:
The drift behaviors of pesticide droplets with different size dis- ∂ ρa −
→
tributions were tracked with the discrete phase method verified by + ∇ · ( ρa v ) = S m (A.1)
∂t
the wind tunnel experiment. The droplets show distinctive spatial
Momentum conservation equation:
behaviors when transitioning from the dense distribution to the
∂
(ρ −
→
v ) + ∇ · ( ρa −
→−
v→v ) = −∇ p + ∇ · (τ ) + ρa −
→
dispersed distribution below the nozzle, which can significantly
g + Sf (A.2)
determine the transport efficiency and biological effect of pesti- ∂t a
cide. The major conclusions of the present study are summarized Energy conservation equation:
as follows:
∂
(ρ e ) + ∇ · (−→
v (ρa e + p))
(1) In the droplet interaction region near the nozzle, spray droplets ∂t a
below150 μm prefer to merge with those above 150 μm, con-  − → −
→
= ∇ · (keff ∇ T − hj J j + (τ eff · v ) ) + Sh (A.3)
sequently reducing the proportion of easily drifted droplets and
j
improving the uniformity of initial diameter distribution, espe-
cially for those with the larger initial RS. where, Sm , Sf , Sh are the source terms of mass, moment, en-
(2) The anti-drift ability of droplets can be improved by the reduc- ergy conservation equations for the air phase contributed by spray
tion of droplets below 100 μm. Also, reducing the initial RS can droplets, respectively. The standard k − ε equation was introduced
make spray droplets deposited more uniformly. to model viscous effect [42], and the standard wall function was
(3) The critical drift height is defined as the falling distance where applied in the near-wall treatment of turbulent boundary layer.
the transport efficiency begins to reduce rapidly. And, the crit- Species transport equation:
ical drift heights for the droplet with diameters ranging from ∂
100 μm to 250 μm are respectively clarified under various air ( ρ Y ) + ∇ · ( ρa −
→
v Yi ) = −∇ · Jj + Sm (A.4)
∂t a i
13
S. Xue, X. Xi, Z. Lan et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 177 (2021) 121516

solution of the pressure-velocity coupling. After the air velocity

distribution has been converged, spray droplets were injected and
tracked by interacting with the air phase until they completely left
the computational domain.
The boundary conditions of the computational domain were the
velocity-inlet at the left side and the outflow at the right side for
the air. The bottom side was no-slip wall. Spray droplets were con-
sidered to be captured once they fall on the bottom side or escape
from the computational domain once they pass through the other
outlet boundaries. The simulation procedures were complemented
by the software ANSYS FLUENT 16.1 with good robustness and sta-
bility in the calculation of multiphase flow, and the data analysis
was completed by the software Origin 2018.

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