Experimental Analysis of Local Pressure Losses for Microirrigation Laterals

The accurate design of drip irrigation laterals needs to consider the variation of hydraulic head due to pipe elevation changes, head losses along the lines, and also, at a given operating pressure, emitter discharge variations related to manufacturing variability, clogging, and water temperature. Hydraulic head variations are consequent to both the friction losses and local losses due to the in-line or on-line emitters along the pipe, which determine the contraction and subsequent enlargement of the flow streamlines. Moreover, in-line emitters usually have a smaller diameter than the pipe, and therefore an additional friction loss must be considered. Evaluation of energy losses and consequently the design of drip irrigation lines is usually carried out by assuming the hypothesis that local losses can be neglected, even if previous experimental researches showed that local losses can become a significant percentage of total head losses as a consequence of the high number of emitters installed along the lines. This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation to evaluate local losses in integrated laterals in which coextruded emitters are installed inside the pipe. Local losses were measured for 10 different types of commercially available integrated laterals and for different Reynolds numbers. A practical power relationship was deduced between the α coefficient, expressing the amount of local losses as a fraction of the kinetic head, and a simple geometric parameter characterizing the geometry of the emitter and the pipe. Local losses obtained for integrated laterals were then compared with those due to the on-line emitters, previously determined as a function of the pipe-emitter geometry. The proposed criterion for calculating the local losses was finally verified by using a step-by-step procedure.