An Explicit Equation for the Maximum Water Application Depth in Center Pivot Irrigation
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VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 148, Issue 11
Abstract
A simple explicit formula was derived to determine the maximum irrigation depth () that can be applied per irrigation without any runoff under a center pivot and/or linear move irrigation system. The analysis is built on the assumption that is achieved when the water application rate is tangential to the Green-Ampt infiltration rate function. The surface storage was not considered here but tillage effects can be inherently incorporated if parameters of the Green-Ampt equation are properly measured. A power form formula was proposed to simulate the infiltration rate, while the application rate pattern had a parabolic shape. The proposed equation for is a function of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity, sorptivity, and the peak application rate. Numerical examples covering different combinations of soil properties and peak application rates indicated the high accuracy of the proposed formula with maximum and average absolute errors of 1 and 0.4 mm from the numerical stepwise solution, respectively. The quick calculation of here allows us to easily estimate a minimum lateral speed that will not trigger runoff under center pivots.
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Data Availability Statement
No data, models, or code were generated or used during the study.
References
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 2, 2022
Accepted: Jul 2, 2022
Published online: Sep 8, 2022
Published in print: Nov 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Feb 8, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Engineering fundamentals
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Hydrologic engineering
- Hydrology
- Infiltration
- Irrigation
- Irrigation engineering
- Irrigation systems
- Linear functions
- Mathematical functions
- Mathematics
- Methodology (by type)
- Numerical methods
- Runoff
- Saturated soils
- Soft soils
- Soil mechanics
- Soil properties
- Soils (by type)
- Water and water resources
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Cited by
- Giorgio Baiamonte, Samuel Palermo, S. Hossein Sadeghi, R. Troy Peters, Design Emission Uniformity of Horizontal Tapered Drip Laterals from the Normalized Pressure Head Distribution Approach, Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, 10.1061/JIDEDH.IRENG-10300, 150, 4, (2024).