Procedures for Determining Maximum Emitter Discharge in Subsurface Drip Irrigation
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 5
Abstract
One problem associated with subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) is the reduction in discharge resulting from soil-water back-pressure at the emitter outlets. An experimental setup was made to measure emitter discharge and pressure at the emitter outlet in different soils. Experiments were carried out with 2– noncompensating and compensating emitters, operating at a constant lateral pressure of 10 m. Emitter discharge was reduced to a range of 2–10% for noncompensating models and to less than 1% for compensating models. Soil pressure ranged from 0.15–2.07 m. Laboratory conditions were simulated with HYDRUS-2D/3D. Experimental values of discharge and soil pressure showed good agreement with estimated values. Finally, maximum emitter discharge to limit the decrease of discharge was determined for an operating pressure of 10 m. For a 10% decrease, considering a constant radius of the spherical cavity in the soil, maximum emitter discharge was for loamy soil and for sandy soil for noncompensating emitters, and 10.73 and , respectively for compensating emitters. These values increased when considering a cavity radius variable with emitter discharge.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the Spanish Interministry Science and Technology Board (CICYT) for its support of this work provided through project no. UNSPECIFIEDAGL2008-00153/AGR.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 5 • May 2011
Pages: 287 - 294
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 21, 2010
Accepted: Sep 27, 2010
Published online: Oct 1, 2010
Published in print: May 1, 2011
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