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ANTI-HAIL GUN FOR PREVENTING THE FORMATION OF HAIL STONES AND A METHOD THEREOF
TECHNICAL FIELD
The embodiments herein relate generally to an anti-hail gun adapted to generate and guide shock waves into the atmosphere to prevent the formation of hailstones, more particularly to an anti-hail gun that uses economical and easily accessible fuel to achieve sustained detonation and thereby prevent the formation of hailstones.
BACKGROUND
A hailstorm is a thunderstorm that produces ice stones because of precipitation by cumulonimbus clouds. Hails are the solid precipitations made of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone. This hailstorm is a harsh weather condition that causes widespread damage to properties as well as to crops and livestock. This leads to economic disruption and downturn.
There are many solutions available currently to reduce the damage caused by hailstorms. One of the approaches includes installing anti-hail nets. The installation of the anti-hail nets is very difficult, cumbersome, labor-intensive, and requires a lot of work. Further, installing anti-hail nets may alter the microclimate around plants, which may create favorable conditions for disease infestation and also block the sunlight required for various physiological processes in the plants.
How Hailstones Form Inside Thunderstorm Clouds
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Strong Updrafts in Thunderclouds:
Inside cumulonimbus clouds, warm, moist air rises rapidly. These powerful upward winds are called updrafts. -
Supercooling of Water:
As water droplets are carried upward into very cold regions of the cloud (below 0°C), they become supercooled, staying liquid below freezing temperatures. -
Nucleation and Growth:
Supercooled water droplets freeze when they come into contact with tiny particles (dust, ice, etc.). These frozen droplets become the core of hailstones. -
Layering in the Updraft:
The developing hailstones are lifted up and down multiple times by updrafts and downdrafts. Each time they go up, more supercooled water freezes on their surface, forming layers like an onion. -
Lightning: Sometimes, extreme temperature rise during lightning events may form small ice crystals due to the sudden evaporation of super-cold water droplets.
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Hail Falls:
When the hailstone becomes too heavy for the updrafts to support, it falls to the ground as hail.
Many researchers are working on different damage prevention techniques like anti-hail nets, anti-hail rockets and anti-hail gun.
Anti-hail rockets and anti-hail guns target at preventing the formation of hailstones in the atmosphere, and thus they can be used only before a hailstone is formed.
Anti-hail rocket uses silver iodide, which affects the hailstone formation by adding silver iodide particles inside the cloud. The extranuclei reduce the chances of forming larger hailstones. However, anti-hail rockets are difficult to use and target with precision without the use of a weather radar, making their use difficult and inaccurate.
The anti-hail gun is a machine that generates supersonic shock waves through the combustion of a high-energy fuel-air mixture in the combustors of an anti-hail gun. The successive generation of the strong shockwaves travels in the forward direction to hit the cloud. The shockwaves are directed upward by a diverging cannon mounted over the combustor. This shock changes the cloud structure and prevents the formation as well as the growth of hail nuclei. The basic anti-hail gun comprises a combustion chamber in which the fuel is ignited and a conical barrel to direct the shockwaves towards the sky.
Different inventions in the anti-hail gun have provided improvements in the basic anti-hail gun. These improvements include using microwave radiometer to detect hail formation in the atmosphere, the use of silencers to reduce the noise created, the use of control logic system to automatically regulate the anti-hail gun, use of shroud member to guide the upward flow ionized particles and the use of improved barrel for guiding the shock waves while sustaining high mechanical stress.
The anti-hail guns available in the market use acetylene for combustion. Acetylene is easily combustible and thus simplifies the formation of detonation shockwaves. However, acetylene is costly and not available abundantly. This increases the cost of operation of the anti-hail gun. Since the anti-hail guns are mostly used in rural and remote areas, making acetylene available in abundance in such areas is tedious. Also, due to the lack of combustion efficiency of the combustors in the available antihail guns, more fuel is required, which further increases the cost of operation.
Therefore, there exists a need for an anti-hail gun that uses economical and easily accessible fuel to achieve sustained detonation and thereby prevent the formation of hailstones. Further, there exists a need for an anti-hail gun that eliminates the aforementioned drawbacks.
OBJECTIVE
The principal object of an embodiment of this invention is to provide an anti-hail gun which uses economical and easily accessible fuel to achieve sustained detonation and thereby prevent the formation of hailstones.
Another object of an embodiment of this invention is to provide an anti-hail gun that achieves sustained detonation using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)-air mixture.
Another object of an embodiment of this invention is to provide an anti-hail gun which includes a spiral coil (or member) designed to effectively enhance the deflagration to detonation transition (DDT wave) and to generate a detonation wave within a shorter length of a combustion chamber for an LPG-air mixture.
Yet another object of an embodiment of this invention is to provide the anti-hail gun which is easy to manufacture and has low operational and maintenance cost.
Anti-Hail Nets
Introduction
Anti-hail nets are widely used in horticulture to protect crops from hailstorms and excessive sunlight. While they are effective for crop protection, concerns have arisen about their unintended impacts on pollinators, especially bees, which are vital for fruit set and biodiversity.
How Anti-Hail Nets Affect Bees
Restricted Movement and Entrapment:
Bees often enter net-covered orchards during pollination. Due to the net structure and lack of escape routes, they can become trapped inside, especially if the netting is tightly sealed. Trapped bees become disoriented and eventually die from exhaustion or heat stress.
Reduced Light and Heat Build-Up:
Certain net colours (e.g., black or green) reduce light penetration and increase temperature under the canopy. This alters bee behaviour and can cause overheating or disruption in hive navigation, leading to decreased foraging efficiency or death.
Limited Access to Flowers:
If netting is placed before or during flowering, it can restrict access to flowers entirely, cutting off bees from nectar and pollen sources they depend on.
Evidence and Observations
•Beekeepers and orchard managers have observed dead bees accumulating under anti-hail nets during and after the flowering season.
•Pollination failure has been reported in orchards where nets were deployed too early or without bee escape pathways.
Recommendations
•Install nets after pollination is complete, or provide scheduled openings during active bee hours.
•Use bee-friendly net designs that allow escape.
•Maintain ventilation gaps or install bee escape windows at regular intervals.
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