Abstract
To meet the precision spraying of poultry house immunization robots, an immunization sprayer based on microporous atomization is designed to ensure uniform and efficient atomization of immunological reagents. The optimal driving frequency is determined through modal analysis of the piezoelectric atomization plate, which is 113 kHz. Using the resonant frequency-driven droplet generation model, the simulation of single-pore droplet formation is realized, and the initial droplet velocity and diameter are extracted as boundary conditions for input into the droplet diffusion model. This reveals the diffusion and evolution rules of the atomization field, along with the distribution characteristics of velocity and particle size. The atomization diffusion distance in a dynamically stable state is 68.36 cm, with a diffusion range of 32°. Within 15–55 cm from the atomizer, over 90% of droplets have an adequate particle size of 30–200 μm. Practical testing with the VisiSize P15 droplet size measuring instrument showed that the diffusion angle of the stable atomization morphology is approximately 30°, with a diffusion distance of 65 cm. The simulation results show an absolute relative error of less than 7%, while the droplet size distribution has an absolute relative error of less than 10%. For the segmented characteristics of droplet velocity attenuation, the absolute relative error is less than 18%, with an absolute error of less than 0.15 m/s. These results demonstrate that the overall atomization and diffusion effect meet the requirements for immunization spraying.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information.
References
Mayers, J., Mansfield, K. L. & Brown, I. H. The role of vaccination in risk mitigation and control of Newcastle disease in poultry. Vaccine 35 (44), 5974–5980. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2017.09.008 (2017).
Wiseman, A. & Berman, E. M. Herd immunity to Newcastle disease virus in broiler flocks in Israel. Avian Pathol. 46 (4), 396–402 (2017).
Condello, A. K. et al. Evaluation of the safety and efficacy of the novel Mycoplasma gallisepticum vaccine, Vaxsafe MG304, after spray-vaccination of 1-day-old specific pathogen-free chicks. Vet. Microbiol. 293, 110093 (2024).
Feng, Q. C. & Wang, X. Design of disinfection robot for livestock breeding. Procedia Comput. Sci. 166, 310–314 (2020).
Gao, A. et al. Progress in robotics for combating infectious diseases. Sci. Rob. 6 (52), eabf1462 (2021).
Ren, G., Lin, T., Ying, Y., Chowdhary, G. & Ting, K. C. Agricultural robotics research applicable to poultry production: A review. Comput. Electron. Agric. 169, 105216 (2020).
Yang, D., Cui, D. & Ying, Y. Development and trends of chicken farming robots in chicken farming tasks: A review. Comput. Electron. Agric. 221, 108916 (2024).
Sathiyamoorthy, R., Duraisamy, T. & Mohankumar, A. HVOF-sprayed silicon carbide-enhanced TiO₂ cermet coatings for Titanium alloys: A study on solid particle erosion behavior. Silicon 17 (14), 3333–3354 (2025).
Mohankumar, A., Duraisamy, T. & Packkirisamy, V. Optimizing cold spray process parameters for AA2024/Al2O3 coatings to minimize wear loss via response surface methodology and particle swarm optimization. J. Adhes. Sci. Technol. 39 (17), 2686–2709 (2025).
Ashokkumar, M. et al. An overview of cold spray coating in additive manufacturing, component repairing and other engineering applications. J. Mech. Behav. Mater. 31 (1), 514–534 (2022).
Kooij, S., Astefanei, A., Corthals, G. L. & Bonn, D. Size distributions of droplets produced by ultrasonic nebulizers. Sci. Rep. 9 (1), 6128 (2019).
Vecellio, L. The mesh nebuliser: a recent technical innovation for aerosol delivery. Breathe 2 (3), 252–260 (2006).
Yan, Q. et al. L. Advances in piezoelectric jet and atomization devices. Appl. Sci. 11 (11), 5093 (2021).
Kaimal, R. et al. Impact of piezoelectric driving waveform on performance characteristics of vibrating mesh atomizer (VMA). Exp. Thermal Fluid Sci. 160, 111331 (2025).
Zhang, F. et al. Error correction and reanalysis of the vibration analysis of a Piezoelectric ultrasonic atomizer to control atomization rate. Appl. Sci. 13 (10), 6293 (2023).
Chen, Y., Ma, C., Shen, Z. & Chen, R. Research on vibration characteristics of piezoelectric ceramic atomizer based on ANSYS. In E3S Web of Conferences (Vol. 118, p. 02043). (EDP Sciences, 2019).
Jeng, Y. R., Su, C. C., Feng, G. H. & Peng, Y. Y. An investigation into a piezoelectrically actuated nebulizer with µEDM-made micronozzle array. Exp. Thermal Fluid Sci. 31 (8), 1147–1156 (2007).
Jiang, X., Siamas, G. A., Jagus, K. & Karayiannis, T. G. Physical modelling and advanced simulations of gas–liquid two-phase jet flows in atomization and sprays. Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 36 (2), 131–167 (2010).
Shonibare, O. Y. & Wardle, K. E. Numerical investigation of vertical plunging jet using a hybrid multifluid–VOF multiphase CFD solver. Int. J. Chem. Eng. (2015) (1), 925639 (2015).
Yaozhi, Z. H. O. U. et al. N. G. Review of atomization mechanism and spray characteristics of a liquid jet in supersonic crossflow. Chin. J. Aeronaut. 36 (8), 1–23 (2023).
Kim, K. D. & Choi, Y. C. Numerical simulation on the generation of ultrasound and formation of water fog in the ultrasonic gas atomizer. Ultrasonics 102, 105851 (2020).
Feng, Y., Zhou, Z., Zhu, J. & Du, G. The effect of nozzle layout on droplet ejection of a piezo-electrically actuated micro-atomizer. Acta. Mech. Sin. 23 (2), 163–172 (2007).
Brenn, G., Helpiö, T. & Durst, F. A new apparatus for the production of monodisperse sprays at high flow rates. Chem. Eng. Sci. 52 (2), 237–244 (1997).
Cai, Y., Zhang, J., Zhu, C., Huang, J. & Jiang, F. Theoretical calculations and experimental verification for the pumping effect caused by the dynamic micro-tapered angle. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. 29 (3), 615–623 (2016).
Zhang, J., Yan, Q., Huang, J. & Wu, C. Experimental verification of the pumping effect caused by the micro-tapered hole in a piezoelectric atomizer. Sensors 18 (7), 2311 (2018).
Yan, Q., Zhang, J., Huang, J. & Wang, Y. The effect of vibration characteristics on the atomization rate in a micro-tapered aperture atomizer. Sensors 18 (4), 934 (2018).
Guerra-Bravo, E., Lee, H. J., Baltazar, A. & Loh, K. J. Vibration analysis of a piezoelectric ultrasonic atomizer to control atomization rate. Appl. Sci. 11 (18), 8350 (2021).
Yan, Q., Wu, C. & Zhang, J. Effect of the dynamic cone angle on the atomization performance of a piezoceramic vibrating mesh atomizer. Appl. Sci. 9 (9), 1836 (2019).
John, J. et al. Computational fluid dynamics simulation of the turbulence models in the tested section on wind tunnel. Ain Shams Eng. J. 11 (4), 1201–1209 (2020).
Yan, Q., Sun, W., Zhang, L., Wang, H. & Zhang, J. Effects of vibration characteristics on the atomization performance in the medical piezoelectric atomization device induced by intra-hole fluctuation. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. 34 (1), 123 (2021).
Lelong, N. et al. Comparison of numerical simulations to experiments for atomization in a jet nebulizer. PloS one. 8 (11), e78659 (2013).
Colombo, M. & Fairweather, M. Multiphase turbulence in bubbly flows: RANS simulations. Int. J. Multiph. Flow. 77, 222–243 (2015).
Krasucka, D. M., Kos, K., Wozniak, A. D. & Cybulski, W. A. Determination of the viscosity and density of veterinary vaccines. Acta Pol. Pharm. 71 (6), 1090–1094 (2014).
Shonibare, O. Y. & Wardle, K. E. Numerical investigation of vertical plunging jet using a hybrid multifluid–VOF multiphase CFD solver. Int. J. Chem. Eng. 2015 (1), 925639 (2015).
Jing, D. et al. Research and application of dust reduction technology for supersonic spiral an atomizers. Powder Technol. 405, 117537 (2022).
Besagni, G., Varallo, N. & Mereu, R. Computational fluid dynamics modelling of two-phase bubble columns: A comprehensive review. Fluids 8 (3), 91 (2023).
Duan, L., Yuan, W., Liu, D., Chen, F. & Wei, J. Active control of complex non-Newtonian polymer droplet formation in flow-focused microchannels by pulsatile flow. Chem. Eng. Sci. 309, 121517 (2025).
Derksen, J. J. & Van Den Akker, H. E. A. Multi-scale simulations of stirred liquid–liquid dispersions. Chem. Eng. Res. Des. 85 (5), 697–702 (2007).
Håkansson, A. & Nilsson, L. The effect of emulsifier concentration on turbulent drop breakup–An experimental study based on single drop visualizations. J. Colloid Interface Sci. 679, 344–353 (2025).
Yu, H. et al. Multiscale simulation of atomization process and droplet particles diffusion of pressure-swirl nozzle. Powder Technol. 379, 127–143 (2021).
Michaelides, E. E., Sommerfeld, M. & Van Wachem, B. Multiphase flows with droplets and particles (CRC, 2022).
O’Rourke, P. J. & Amsden, A. A. November). The TAB method for numerical calculation of spray droplet breakup. In 1987 SAE International Fall Fuels and Lubricants Meeting and Exhibition. SAE technical paper. (1987).
Sajjadi, B., Raman, A. A. A., Shah, R. S. S. R. E. & Ibrahim, S. Review on applicable breakup/coalescence models in turbulent liquid-liquid flows. Rev. Chem. Eng. 29 (3), 131–158 (2013).
Carneiro, J. N., Patil, A., Johansen, S. T., Gonçalves, G. F. & Gallassi, M. Drop breakup and size evolution in oil and gas production: a review of models and mechanisms. Droplet Spray. Transport: Paradigms Applic. 83–121 (2017).
Tomar, G., Fuster, D., Zaleski, S. & Popinet, S. Multiscale simulations of primary atomization. Comput. Fluids. 39 (10), 1864–1874 (2010).
Chen, B. et al. Investigation of the droplet characteristics and size distribution during the collaborative atomization process of a twin-fluid nozzle. Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol. 107 (3), 1625–1639 (2020).
Yan, Q., Sun, W. & Zhang, J. Study on the formation and separation process of droplets in the medical piezoelectric atomization device induced by intra-hole fluctuation. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. 35 (1), 69 (2022).
Deepu, P., Peng, C. & Moghaddam, S. Dynamics of ultrasonic atomization of droplets. Exp. Thermal Fluid Sci. 92, 243–247 (2018).
Xu, Z., Wang, T. & Che, Z. Interaction between droplet and airflow during aerodynamic breakup of droplet. Int. J. Multiph. Flow. 193, 105377 (2025).
Lefebvre, A. H. & McDonell, V. G. Atomization and Sprays (CRC, 2017).
Zhang, T. et al. Numerical simulation of the dimensional transformation of atomization in a supersonic aerodynamic atomization dust-removing nozzle based on transonic speed compressible flow. Int. J. Coal Sci. Technol. 7 (3), 597–610 (2020).
Chapman, J. D., Kottke, P. A. & Fedorov, A. G. Droplet-gas interactions in nanoelectrospray multiphase flow. Int. J. Multiph. Flow. 172, 104701 (2024).
Agasthya, L., Picardo, J. R., Ravichandran, S., Govindarajan, R. & Ray, S. S. Understanding droplet collisions through a model flow: Insights from a Burgers vortex. Physical Review E. 99 (6), 063107 (2019).
Ade, S. S., Chandrala, L. D. & Sahu, K. C. Size distribution of a drop undergoing breakup at moderate Weber numbers. J. Fluid Mech. 959, A38 (2023).
Maehara, N., Ueha, S. & Mori, E. Influence of the vibrating system of a multipinhole-plate ultrasonic nebulizer on its performance. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 57 (11), 2870–2876 (1986).
Funding
This work is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2023YFD2000802).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Zeting Ning is responsible for the Investigation, Methodology, Formal Analysis, and Writing—Original Draft. Qifeng Li participates in Conceptualization and Visualization. Yu Zhao undertakes Data Curation. Qingchun Feng participated in the writing—review, Supervision and editing of the manuscript, as well as in funding acquisition. Ronghua Gao oversees Project Administration. Xin Guo contributed to the investigation, while Za Kan is responsible for Writing—Review & Editing and Supervision.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Ning, Z., Li, Q., Zhao, Y. et al. Droplets formation and diffusion simulation and test of microporous atomizer for robotic immunization spraying. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-48149-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-48149-3


