# Drift Potential Characteristics of a Flat Fan Nozzle: A Numerical and Experimental Study
###### Abstract  
This study explores the drift potential characteristics of a flat fan nozzle. The atomization and drift characteristics of fan-shaped pressure nozzles were studied at a spraying height of 0.6 m and a lateral wind speed of 0-6 m/s through a combination of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses and wind tunnel experiments. The nozzle Lu 120-03 had a spraying pressure of 0.3 MPa. The results show that as the wind speed varies from 0 m/s to 6 m/s, the spray droplet spectrum also changes, and the droplet volume medium diameter increases. The cumulative droplet ratio and droplet spectral width of M oscillate within certain ranges. The amount of spray drift increases at higher wind speeds. The concentration of droplet deposition on the bottom of the wind tunnel gradually spreads downward in the wind direction. The determination coefficient R\({}^{2}\) of the straight-line fitting of the drift characteristics is 0.982, which is highly consistent with the CFD simulation results. A CFD simulation-assisted wind tunnel test method, which is more convenient and repeatable than traditional field tests, is proposed to analyze the droplet spectrum and drift of Lechler series nozzles. The program can accurately simulate the actual drift and provide theoretical and data support for the optimization of atomization and drift characteristics of several types of flat fan nozzles under different spraying pressures and crosswinds in practical applications. d pacs: 11 May 2022  
Accepted: 13 June 2022  
Published: 15 June 2022  
**Published: 15 June 2022**  
modeling offer higher repeatability and minor environmental impact. Hence, they are being increasingly used to detect droplet drift characteristics. [PERSON] et al. [25] studied the effects of a rotary atomizer in an open wind tunnel at the University of Queensland, Australia. [PERSON] [26] fitted the droplet size of CP-series nozzles by varying the pipe pressure, wind speed, and nozzle installation angle. [PERSON] et al. [27; 28] studied droplet-size distribution under high- and low-speed conditions based on the aviation application wind tunnel at the Agricultural Aviation Research Center of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. [PERSON] et al. [29] also used a wind tunnel to study the droplet-distribution law of electrostatic spray under different wind speeds. [PERSON] et al. [30] studied the droplet spectrum, relative distribution span, drift amount, and drift potential index of four nozzles by employing a polyethylene collection line and a Spraytec droplet-size meter (Malvern Panalytical Ltd., Malvern, UK). Using a wind tunnel test at the University of Queensland (Brisbane, QLD, Australia), [PERSON] et al. [31] studied the effects of wind speed, nozzle structure and model, reagent, and sampling distance on the droplet drift. These researchers established a multivariate nonlinear droplet-drift-characteristic model including the above four factors and provided a quantitative standard for judging the level of the nozzle's droplet spectrum. [PERSON] et al. [32] studied the atomization characteristics of standard fan-shaped and air-induced nozzles with high-speed airflow via experiments at the Xiaotangshan precision agriculture demonstration base of the Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences. They studied the spraying characteristics of the nozzles through experiments and obtained test results under certain conditions. However, their study did not include any theoretical research on the fluids coupled with the spraying liquid and air during spraying. [PERSON] et al. [2] studied the plume distribution and incidental airflow of several common nozzles by combining laboratory tests and CFD simulations. They proved that the liquid distribution was directly related to the generated airflow.