Te. Grift et Jw. Hofstee, MEASUREMENT OF VELOCITY AND DIAMETER OF INDIVIDUAL FERTILIZER PARTICLES BY AN OPTICAL METHOD, Journal of agricultural engineering research, 66(3), 1997, pp. 235-238
Fertilizer spreaders are traditionally tested by using the collecting
tray method. This method requires large indoor test facilities and app
lied on a large scale. method is to measure the velocity and diameter
of individual fertilizer particles emanating from the spreader and use
a model to predict the landing spot of individual particles. The tota
l spread pattern follows from accumulating a large number of particle
landing spots. An optical device for measuring the velocity vector and
dimensions of individual fertilizer particles was developed. The syst
em proved capable of measuring the velocity of a 4 mm particle travell
ing at 29 m/s within an accuracy of 5% and dimensions within 2%. Two f
orms of the detector are discussed, namely, one and two dimensional ve
rsions respectively. (C) 1997 Silsoe Research Institute.