Intercomparison Testing and Evaluation of Sprinklers within the INITL
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 2
Abstract
The International Network of Irrigation Testing Laboratories (INITL) undertook a sprinkler intercomparison testing exercise to generate data for an objective comparison of the performances of the different facilities and identify opportunities for further improvements. Three impact sprinklers were tested in four laboratories in accordance with established standards. The plots of flow rate-pressure profiles were found to be consistent, and correlated to those obtained from previous studies. Although there were slight variations in the measured flow rate data, the mean flow rates at each pressure level were the same for the three sprinklers, and the shapes of the radial distribution profiles were similar. The deviations of reconstituted flow rates (from the measured) of at least two tests in each facility were found to exceed the recommended limit. The sprinkler software developed by INITL was found to have a good correlation with a related commercial software program.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Bean, A. (1965). “Water distribution by irrigation sprinklers.” J. Agric. Eng. Res., 10(4), 314–321.
Bentley, R. (2005). “Uncertainty in measurement: The ISO guide.” National Measurement Institute, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, Australia.
Christiansen, J. E. (1942). “Irrigation by sprinkling.”, California Agricultural Experimental Station, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA.
IBM SPSS Version 22 [Computer software]. Armonk, NY, IBM Corp.
ISO. (2005). “General requirements for competence of testing and calibration laboratories.” ISO/IEC 17025, Geneva.
ISO. (2008). “ISO 15886 sprinklers evaluation protocol, amendment and draft report.” ISO TC23 SC18 N884, Anaheim, CA.
ISO. (2009). “ISO 9261 test method from localized irrigation emitters, report on drippers cross tests.” ISO TC23 SC18 N924, Cuerna Vaca, Mexico.
ISO. (2012). “Agricultural irrigation equipment—Sprinklers. Part 3: Characterization and test methods.” ISO 15886-3, Geneva.
Karmeli, D. (1977). “Classification of flow regime analysis of drippers.” J. Agric. Eng. Res., 22(2), 165–173.
Merkley, G. (2004). “Catch3D user’s guide.” Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Utah State Univ., Logan, UT.
Molle, B., and Gat, Y. (2000). “Model of water application under pivot sprinkler. II: Calibration and results.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 348–354.
NaanDanJain Irrigation. (2013). “Sprinklers.” 〈http://www.naandanjain.com/uploads/catalogerfiles/Sprinklers%20Booklet/NDJ_sprinklers_eng_170613F.pdf〉 (Aug. 22, 2014).
Oliphant, J. (2003). “SPACE PROTM installation and operation manual.” Center for Irrigation Technology, California State Univ., Fresno, CA.
Seginer, I., Kantz, D., Nir, D., and Bernuth, R. (1992). “Indoor measurement of single-radius sprinkler patterns.” Trans. ASAE, 35(2), 523–533.
Stambouli, T., Zapata, N., and Faci, J. (2014). “Performance of new agricultural impact sprinkler fitted with plastic nozzles.” Biosyst. Eng., 118, 39–51.
Svubure, O., Mbavarira, H., and Mutengu, S. (2010). “An investigation on the energy saving potential of mini-sprinkler irrigation systems.” Int. J. Eng. Sci. Technol., 2(7), 3287–3296.
Tarjuelo, J. M., Montero, J., Carrion, P. A., Honrubia, F. T., and Calvo, M. A. (1999). “Irrigation uniformity with medium size sprinklers. Part II: Influence of wind and other factors on water distribution.” Trans. ASAE, 42(3), 677–689.
Tedeschi, M., et al. (2002). “Intercomparison exercise of high pressure gas flow test facilities within GERG.” Flow Meas. Instrum., 12(5-6), 397–410.
Zhang, L., Merkley, G., and Pinthong, K. (2013). “Assessing whole-field sprinkler irrigation application uniformity.” Irrig. Sci., 31(2), 87–105.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 2 • February 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 9, 2015
Accepted: Jun 22, 2015
Published online: Sep 24, 2015
Published in print: Feb 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Feb 24, 2016
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.