Abstract
This study was performed to evaluate some geometrical characteristics of disc type swirl nozzles and to develop nozzles having improved spraying performance for knapsack sprayers. Considered geometrical characteristics of the nozzles were disc thickness, orifice diameter, swirl chamber diameter and shape of the swirl chamber (nozzle chamber). 3 types of nozzle cores were compared. Main results of this study were as follows. 1. Spraying angle (A) was increased with decreasing disc thickness (x), and with increasing orifice diameter (y) or spraying pressure (z). The equation was as a follow. $$A=3.95\frac{1}{x}+73.50\sqrt{y}+18.97\sqrt{z}-60.16$$ 2. Spraying flow rate (F) was increased with decreasing disc thickness (x), and with increasing orifice diameter (y) or spraying pressure (z). The equation was as a follow. $$F=-89.95x+611.09y+620.49\sqrt{z}-868.20$$ 3. Mean spraying droplet size (V) was decreased with decreasing disc thickness (x), with increasing orifice diameter (y) in low spraying pressure, with decreasing orifice diameter (y) in high spraying pressure, and with increasing spraying pressure (z). $$V=148.77x^4-746.85x^3+1311.76x^2-917.31x$$ 4. The spray pattern was compared using CV values. The CV value of the nozzle core type 1 was 26.7% in spraying pressure $3\;kgf/cm^2$, the CV value of the core type 2 was 23.6% in spraying pressure $2\;kgf/cm^2$, the CV value of the core type 3 was 20.6% in spraying pressure $1\;kgf/cm^2$. 5. Minimum spraying pressure was improved from $1.5\;kgf/cm^2\;to\;1.0\;kgf/cm^2$ by changes of nozzle core shape.