Improving Water Distribution Uniformity by Optimizing the Structural Size of the Drive Spoon Blades for a Vertical Impact Sprinkler

Pan Tang, Chao Chen and Hong Li
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Pan Tang: Research Center of Fluid Machinery Engineering and Technology, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
Chao Chen: Research Center of Fluid Machinery Engineering and Technology, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
Hong Li: Research Center of Fluid Machinery Engineering and Technology, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 18, 1-13

Abstract: The aim of this study is to improve the water distribution uniformity of a vertical impact sprinkler and explore the design method of the drive spoon blades. The width of straight blades ( h 1 ), the width of curved blades ( h 2 ) and number of blades ( s ) were chosen as the experiential variables. The suitable ranges of three variables for response surface method were determined initially by one-factor experimental design method, and 17 different drive spoons were designed according to response surface methodology. The results showed that in the one-factor experimental condition, the CU (Christiansen’s uniformity coefficient) values first increased and decreased slightly when h 1 exceeded 3 mm with the increase of h 1 within the variation range of the experimental factor. The CU values firstly increased and then decreased with the increase of h 2 . The CU values decreased rapidly when s was less than 3 or greater than 6. The relationship between CU values and h 1 , h 2 and s was established using response surface methodology. The p -values for h 1 , h 2 and s were 0.0359, 0.0092, 0.0212, and all of the selected factors were significant on CU. The order of parameters affecting CU were h 2 , h 1 and s . The ideal parameters for the drive spoon blades were h 1 = 6 mm, h 2 = 4 mm, and s = 3. CU was greatly improved after the optimization of structure for the drive spoon blades, which increased to 87.96% from 73.12%. After optimization, the application rates within 1 to 5 m were improved and increased from 10% to 15% with an average of 10.7% under different operating pressures. The maximum application rates decreased from 9.3, 9.3, 9.4 and 8.4 mm·h −1 to 8.5, 8.4, 8.5 and 7.9 mm·h −1 with operating pressures of 300, 400, 500 and 600 kPa, respectively. The maximum application rates in the overlap area were decreased from 18, 16, 16 and 15 mm·h −1 to 16, 14, 14 and 12 mm·h −1 with operating pressures of 300, 400, 500 and 600 kPa, respectively.

Keywords: precision irrigation; sprinkler; water distribution uniformity; optimization; response surface methodology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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