Abstract

An experimental method combined with a computer simulation technique, specified for optimizing the water distribution of a traveling rain gun system is presented in the paper. For given operational pressure and flat terrain, this method enables accurate evaluation of track overlapping and carriage velocity of the traveling rain gun that guarantee uniform water distribution at desired water deposit level. The evaluation criteria for water deposit quality have been formulated: minimum standard deviation, skewness factor as close to zero as possible and the highest possible flatness factor. It is verified that tested rain gun system achieves the uniform water distribution of 20.36 mm in lateral direction at track overlapping of 58%. The simple accurate formula specified for carriage velocity correction is also presented.

Key words: Traveling rain gun, water deposition, track overlapping, carriage velocity, descriptive statistics.