HYDRAULIC CHARACTERISTICS AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF MODERN IRRIGATION SYSTEMS

Morad, M. M.; Abdel-Aal, S. I. A.

doi:10.21608/mjae.2013.102020

HYDRAULIC CHARACTERISTICS AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF MODERN IRRIGATION SYSTEMS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

M. M. Morad ¹
S. I. A. Abdel-Aal ²

¹ Prof. of Agric. Eng. Dept. Fac. of Agric., Zagazig Un., Egypt.

² Assoc. Prof. of Agric. Dept. Eng., Fac. of Agric., Zagazig Un., Egypt.

10.21608/mjae.2013.102020

Abstract

The hydraulic characteristics of three irrigation systems (trickle, subsurface and sprinkler irrigation) were investigated in terms of required pressure and flow characteristics of emitters, leaky pipes and sprinklers. Added to that, the pump power required for operating the used irrigation systems was also estimated. The performances of the used irrigation systems in terms of application efficiency, coefficient of uniformity, flow rate variation and irrigation system efficiency were experimentally determined under conditions of sandy soil.
The experimental results reveal the following:
-        The required pump pressure to operate the trickle, subsurface and sprinkler irrigation systems must not be less than 2.9, 2.9 and 4.3 bar, so as to pump water from the emitters, lucky pipe and sprinkler at pressure of 1.3, 1.3 and 2.4 bar.
-      The required pump power to operate the trickle, subsurface and sprinkler irrigation systems must be not more than 32.6 kW instead of the already used pump in the experimented area (44.1 kW) that will be saved power with percentage of 26%.
-      The exponent x value of emitters was 0.77 meaning that the flow rate through emitters is between a laminar and turbulent.
-      Values of application efficiency and emission uniformity for subsurface irrigation system were much higher than trickle irrigation system.
-      Sprinkler irrigation system recorded higher flow rate variation comparing with trickle and subsurface irrigation systems.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Agricultural Irrigation and Drainage Engineering

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