Segregation of Blended Fertiliser During Spreading: The Effect of Differences in Ballistic Properties

Keywords: fertiliser spreading, segregation, granules, blended fertiliser, fertiliser ballistics, particle size.

Productivity pressures are leading to a tendency for spread widths to increase, with proportionate increases in granule flight times from spreader to ground surface. This in turn brings greater opportunity for the aerodynamic properties of the granules to influence the trajectories. This is a particular problem with blended fertilisers where the granulometry of the different blend elements may be different, since it will tend to cause the spread pattern of the different elements to differ.

This paper uses trajectory modelling techniques from the field of bulk solids handling to examine likely segregation issues arising from the difference in granule size when spreading granulated fertilisers.

M S A Bradley and R J Farnish, The Wolfson Centre for Bulk Solids Handling Technology, University of Greenwich, London, UK.

15 pages, 14 figures, 3 references.