CFD modelling to simulate dust emissions from pneumatic seed drills

Airborne drift of dust from pesticide-treated seed to non-target organisms has become a major environmental concern in recent years. Predicting the dispersion of this type of dust is challenging because dust particles are very irregular in size, shape, density, internal porosity and chemical composition. In this work, a CFD Lagrangian particle tracking model that accounts for the irregular properties of these particles was developed. Dust properties were measured experimentally and implemented in the CFD model. Simulated dust deposition patterns agreed well with wind tunnel data. Simulations also demonstrated the importance of micro-CT to account for particle shape and porosity. The model can be used to simulate realistic seeding scenarios, indicating the influence of dust properties, seeder design and wind conditions. The modeling approach presented in this work can also be applied to the simulation of other types of dilute particle flows.

Publication year:2016

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