Abstract
This investigation was carried out to study the engineering parameters of auger volume, cross sectional area of the orifice gate, fertilizer density and feeding shaft speed that effect the discharge rate, g/min, and the percent volumetric efficiency of the fertilizer applicator. The results indicated that the highest value of discharge rate was 2,660 g/min obtained at the orifice gate with a cross section area of 48 cm(2), auger volume of 50.66 cm(3) and feeding shaft rotational speed of 11.6 m/s for a bulk density of 0.685 g/cm(3). The lowest value was 190 g/min at the sequence condition of 2.7 m/s, auger volume of 24.27 cm(3) and gate area of 16 cm(2) for super phosphate. Increasing the gate area from 16 to 48 cm(2) increased the volumetric efficiency from 64.8 % to 78.9 % and from 39.4 % to 51.1 % for bulk density of 0.685 and 0.995 g/cm(3), respectively.