Analysis of water application with semi-portable big size sprinkler irrigation systems in semi-arid areas

Omid Sheikhesmaeili, Jesús Montero and Santiago Laserna

Agricultural Water Management, 2016, vol. 163, issue C, 275-284

Abstract: Sustainability of irrigated agriculture depends heavily on getting a high efficiency application for the irrigation. It is very important to understand the factors that affect to irrigation uniformity and discharge efficiency, especially using semi-portable big size sprinkler. There are not studies conducted with big size sprinklers which work on high flow rates and big layouts spacing. In this paper, the spray losses (Ls) and water distribution of sprinkler irrigation system with semi-portable big size sprinkler on semi-arid areas have been characterized. The factors affecting on discharge efficiency and irrigation uniformity were analysed (working pressure, irrigation layout and weather conditions). The field tests were conducted in outdoor conditions with a single sprinkler system. Six predictive equations were obtained to estimate drift and evaporation losses. The proposed equations use operating pressure, wind speed and vapour pressure deficit. The results show an increment of 3.26% for Ls for each increment of 1ms−1 of wind speed. Spray losses rise up to 22.7% at 450kPa operating pressure when wind speed and vapour pressure deficit increased up to 4.2ms−1 and 6kPa, respectively. A significantly effect of wind is appreciated on the spray losses and water distribution pattern under different conditions with regard for working pressure and sprinkler spacing. This behaviour is very similar to obtained with medium size sprinklers. Technical criteria can be used to optimize irrigation management according to the design factors and the climatic parameters.

Keywords: Big size sprinkler; Drift; Efficiency irrigation; Evaporation; Uniformity. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377415301232
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:163:y:2016:i:c:p:275-284

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2015.10.004

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().