Quantitative Analysis and Correction of Temperature Effects on Fluorescent Tracer Concentration Measurement

Zhihong Zhang, Heping Zhu and Huseyin Guler
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Zhihong Zhang: College of Agriculture and Food, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China
Heping Zhu: USDA-ARS Application Technology Research Unit, Wooster, OH 44691, USA
Huseyin Guler: Department of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Ege University, 35040 Izmir, Turkey

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-15

Abstract: To ensure an accurate evaluation of pesticide spray application efficiency and pesticide mixture uniformity, reliable and accurate measurements of fluorescence concentrations in spray solutions are critical. The objectives of this research were to examine the effects of solution temperature on measured concentrations of fluorescent tracers as the simulated pesticides and to develop models to correct the deviation of measurements caused by temperature variations. Fluorescent tracers (Brilliant Sulfaflavine (BSF), Eosin, Fluorescein sodium salt) were selected for tests with the solution temperatures ranging from 10.0 °C to 45.0 °C. The results showed that the measured concentrations of BSF decreased as the solution temperature increased, and the decrement rate was high at the beginning and then slowed down and tended to become constant. In contrast, the concentrations of Eosin decreased slowly at the beginning and then noticeably increased as temperatures increased. On the other hand, the concentrations of Fluorescein sodium salt had little variations with its solution temperature. To ensure the measurement accuracy, correction models were developed using the response surface methodology to numerically correct the measured concentration errors due to variations with the solution temperature. Corrected concentrations using the models agreed well with the actual concentrations, and the overall relative errors were reduced from 42.36% to 2.91% for BSF, 11.72% to 1.55% for Eosin, and 2.68% to 1.17% for Fluorescein sodium salt. Thus, this approach can be used to improve pesticide sprayer performances by accurately quantifying droplet deposits on target crops and off-target areas.

Keywords: agricultural sprayer; spray deposition and drift; fluorescent tracer; pesticides; concentration measurement; mixing uniformity; correction model; BSF; Eosin; Fluorescein sodium salt (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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