Abstract

Characteristics of emitters under low pressure are essential for the design of low pressure drip irrigation systems. Few data is provided by the manufacturers for drip emitter operating under low pressures. No guidelines regarding the optimum combination of operating pressure head and lateral length available either. A laboratory test was conducted to evaluate the effects of pressure head and lateral length on water distribution uniformity of a PVC drip irrigation system. Five different lengths of lateral were considered under a pressure head of 55 kPa (8.21 psi / 5.6 m). The five lengths were 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 m. Drip tape tested in this study is a non-pressure compensating (NPC) emiiter with 3.00 L/h discharge rate, 16 mm diameter and 35 cm emitter distance. Evaluation of 10 sampled emitters from the 20 m lateral showed a flow variation (Qvar) of 5%, uniformity coefficient (UC) of 99%, with a coefficient of variation (Cv) of 0.016. The 40 m lateral length showed a flow variation (Qvar) of 9%, UC of 98% with a Cv of 0.024.  The 60 m lateral length also showed an average flow variation (Qvar) of 16%, UC of 95% with a Cv of 0.060. The 80 m lateral length showed a flow variation (Qvar) of 23%, UC of 93% with Cv of 0.08 and the 100 m lateral length showed a flow variation (Qvar) of 39%, UC of 89% with a Cv of 0.138. EU for 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 m were 92, 90, 80, 75 and 58% respectively. Flow discharge vs. sampled emitter points (Q-E curves) was also developed for each length. Q-E curves were fitted to the data resulting in R² values of 0.1566, 0.1202, 0.8607, 0.7904 and 0.8998 respectively for 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100m. The operating pressure was 55 kPa (8.21 psi / 5.6 m) for all the tested length. From the statistical analysis, it was observed that as the lateral length increase invariably decreases the average discharge (Qvar). It is therefore recommended to use the 60 m lateral length with a low pressure head of 55 kPa (8.21 psi / 5.6 m), since the 60 m length satisfied the uniformity distribution criteria under a low pressure.

Key words: Pressure head, lateral length, irrigation uniformity.