Hydraulic Evaluation of Low Pressure Drip Irrigation Systems Using Mathematical Modelling and Experimental Data

In the present study, hydraulic properties of low pressure drip irrigation systems in lateral pipes were evaluated by mathematical model with the aid of experimental data resulting from testing of tubes available in Iran. In this regard, emitters discharge were measured in different initial heads from 0.45 to 1.8 m for laterals with outside diameter of 32 mm with different lengths of 89, 60, 30, and 16 meters and also for laterals with the length of 16 meters and external diameters of 32, 25, 20, and 16 mm. the obtained discharge-head relation was q=1.955h^0.8421 with R² of 0.93. On the basis of the ratio of lateral diameter to its length, two relations were proposed for estimating local loss as a function of Reynolds number with R² of 0.95 and 0.75. Furthermore, experimental results showed that Colebrook-White relation could be used as a good estimation for friction losses. The model was calibrated and evaluated using experimental data and relations which were obtained from experimental results. The model was used for evaluating the effect of different heads, lateral diameters, and length on emitter discharges, which was not possible to evaluate experimentally. The results revealed that the proper length interval in which the uniformity is more than 80% was 40 to 75 meters for laterals with the external diameter of 16 mm under different heads (from 0.45 to 1.8 meters). This length interval for laterals with external diameters of 20, 25, and 32 mm was 50 to 100 m, 70 to 150 m, and 80 to 180 m, respectively. Finally, a relation was developed for designing low pressure drip irrigation system.