Initial Development and Validation of a Mechanistic Spray Drift Model for Ground Boom Sprayers

This article summarizes the initial development of a mechanistic spray drift model for ground boom sprayers, built upon the same analytical Lagrangian approach used in the aerial spray model AGDISP. For ground boom sprayers the wake and turbulence of the aircraft are removed and more detailed modeling of the nozzle jets (and jet entrainment) is included. The model predicts the spray deposition downwind from the application area for any set of initial conditions, and recovers results compared with Spray Drift Task Force and Canadian field datasets for two ground sprayer nozzle types.