Development and Performance Evaluation of a Precise Application System for Liquid Starter Fertilizer while Sowing Maize
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Description of Method of Precisely Applying Liquid Starter Fertilizer
2.2. Design of the Precise Application System
2.2.1. Liquid Starter Fertilizer Supply System
2.2.2. Detection Control System
2.3. Evaluation Experiments
2.3.1. Test Arrangement
2.3.2. Test Conditions and Indexes
2.3.3. Statistical Analysis
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Calibration of the Duration of Applying Liquid Starter Fertilizer to Every Seed
3.2. Determination of the Falling Time and Position of Seeds
3.3. Length of Liquid Starter Fertilizer
3.4. Amount of Liquid Starter Fertilizer
3.5. Distance between the Seeds and Liquid Starter Fertilizer
3.6. Comprehensive Analysis
4. Conclusions
- (1)
- DT and ST had a positive correlation. The minimum and maximum DT were 34.5 and 145.3 ms, respectively. Fitted equations were obtained at different pressures, and degrees of fit were greater than 0.989. The slopes of fitted equations were 1.918, 1.874, 2.285, 2.387, and 2.467 for P 0.10, P 0.15, P 0.20, P 0.25, and P 0.30, respectively. Different forward speeds simulated by the seed meter were not significantly different for Δt and Δs in the bench tests. The Δs and Δt were determined as 0.112 m and 0.132 s, respectively.
- (2)
- The results of the field experiments indicated that the precision application system for a LSF had higher QIL when the pressure was 0.15 MPa and 0.20 MPa at three forward speeds. The P 0.10, P 0.25, and P 0.30 treatment led to worse QIL values, especially P 0.30. The highest QIL was 96.4% at the forward speed of 6 km/h and pressure of 0.15 MPa, close to the target FL value. FL was significantly affected by the forward speed (p < 0.05) and pressure (p < 0.01). The distribution uniformity of FL was worse with increasing pressure and forward speed. A more uniform distribution of FL was obtained at lower pressure and forward speed.
- (3)
- FA was significantly affected by the pressure and forward speed (p < 0.01). The range of FA was 1.34 to 13.86 mL at different treatments, which could satisfy the demands of different conditions. QID showed a decreasing trend as the forward speed increased and did not obviously change with the change in pressure. The best QID of 82.6% was obtained when the pressure was 0.25 MPa and the forward speed was 4 km/h. DSF was significantly affected by the forward speed (p < 0.01) and the pressure did not significantly affect DSF it (p > 0.05).
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Fertilizer Pressure | Mean Values of DT (ms) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ST 16 | ST 20 | ST 30 | ST 40 | ST 50 | ST 60 | |
P 0.10 | 34.5 | 50.8 | 69.5 | 86.2 | 103.5 | 123.5 |
P 0.15 | 34.7 | 51.8 | 72.5 | 94.7 | 111.2 | 130.7 |
P 0.20 | 35.2 | 52.3 | 73.5 | 96.5 | 115.0 | 140.3 |
P 0.25 | 35.5 | 52.5 | 77.5 | 101.5 | 123.3 | 142.3 |
P 0.30 | 35.8 | 53.0 | 78.5 | 102.8 | 127.7 | 145.3 |
Forward Speed(km/h) | QIL (%) | QID (%) | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
P 0.10 | P 0.15 | P 0.20 | P 0.25 | P 0.30 | P 0.10 | P 0.15 | P 0.20 | P 0.25 | P 0.30 | |
4 | 91.5 | 96.4 | 95.7 | 92.6 | 89.3 | 78.3 | 81.2 | 81.9 | 82.6 | 81.9 |
6 | 90.2 | 94.3 | 93.1 | 90.4 | 85.8 | 74.7 | 76.9 | 77.3 | 75.4 | 74.7 |
8 | 89.9 | 92.5 | 90.3 | 86.3 | 83.0 | 68.2 | 69.7 | 69.3 | 68.7 | 68.2 |
FL | FA | DSL | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sig. | Sig. | Sig. | ||||
Forward speed | 0.049 | * | 0.000 | ** | 0.000 | ** |
Pressure | 0.000 | ** | 0.000 | ** | 0.708 | ns |
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Yu, C.; Wang, Q.; Cao, X.; Wang, X.; Jiang, S.; Gong, S. Development and Performance Evaluation of a Precise Application System for Liquid Starter Fertilizer while Sowing Maize. Actuators 2021, 10, 221. https://doi.org/10.3390/act10090221
Yu C, Wang Q, Cao X, Wang X, Jiang S, Gong S. Development and Performance Evaluation of a Precise Application System for Liquid Starter Fertilizer while Sowing Maize. Actuators. 2021; 10(9):221. https://doi.org/10.3390/act10090221
Chicago/Turabian StyleYu, Changchang, Qingjie Wang, Xinpeng Cao, Xiuhong Wang, Shan Jiang, and Shaojun Gong. 2021. "Development and Performance Evaluation of a Precise Application System for Liquid Starter Fertilizer while Sowing Maize" Actuators 10, no. 9: 221. https://doi.org/10.3390/act10090221