Determination of hail damage density on soft plastic cover material used as greenhouse cover material in the conditions of Antalya city

Although our country is among the first four countries in the world in terms of greenhouse existence, it ranks second in Europe after Spain. With the development of greenhouse cultivation in the last 10 years, these rates continue to increase rapidly as a result of increasing grants and supports by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Plastic covered plant production structures (plastic greenhouse, low tunnel, high tunnel) constitute 90% of the existing greenhouse existence in our country. Natural disasters are defined as natural events that hinder the socio-economic activities of the society and cause loss of life and property. Among these disasters, especially drought, flood/flood and hail disasters are the ones that are experienced the most and show their effects in very large areas. In this study, it was aimed to determine the damage level of the plastic cover material in polyethylene cover greenhouses in Antalya city. The study was carried out in polyethylene covered plastic greenhouses that were insured under greenhouse insurance and damaged due to hail in Antalya city and its districts. Thermal images were taken to determine the diameter and density of hole (tearing of the cover) and dent (concave stretching of the cover) damage in polyethylene greenhouse covers due to hail. For this purpose, two different thermal cameras (TESTO Brand 882 and Seek Compact Pro) were used and measurements were taken from the greenhouses where there was a hail damage in the center of Antalya and its districts where greenhouse cultivation is common. In the study, the effect of hail damage on the strength of the greenhouse cover was also investigated. For this, tensile strength tests of the cover materials taken from the parts of the greenhouses selected as the material without hail damage were carried out in order to determine the limit values for hail damage in the greenhouse cover. By using the data obtained in the study and the thermal images taken, hail damage diameters and damage density graphs were created and the degrees of damage caused by hail precipitation on greenhouse cover materials were determined. In order to determine the effect of the holes in the greenhouse cover due to hail, on the strength of the greenhouse cover material, 4 different hole diameters were evaluated at three different density levels. These evaluations were made separately for each age of use. According to the results obtained, it was determined that the diameter of the nip was between 0.3 cm and 1.3 cm, and the average nip diameter value was 0.72 cm. Again, it was determined that the hole diameters occurred in PE covers due to hail damage were between 0.7 cm and 1.5 cm, and the average hole diameter value was 1.1 cm. It was determined that the hole diameters caused by hail damage were greater than 1.5 cm in only a few of the greenhouses measured with thermal cameras throughout the project. KEYWORDS: Thermal Camera, Tensile strength test, Agriculture İnsurance, Hail bumpy damage, Hail hole damage