Measurement and Prediction of Total Friction Losses in Drip Irrigation Laterals with Cylindrical Integrated in-line Drip Emitters using CFD Analysis Method

Vedat Demir,Hüseyin Yürdem,Arzu Yazgı,Tuncay Günhan

doi:10.15832/ankutbd.433830

Abstract

The objective of this study was to predict total friction losses in drip irrigation laterals with cylindrical integrated inline emitters at different spacing using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation method. Two types of drip irrigation laterals with different technical specifications were used in the study. In the laboratory, the total friction losses were measured in the laterals for different velocities. In CFD analysis, standard k-ε, RNG k-ε, realizable k-ε, Reynolds Stress (RSM) with Linear Pressure-Strain (LPS) turbulence models and standard wall function, non-equilibrium wall function, enhanced wall treatment were considered. CFD simulation results were compared with experimental total friction losses in laterals. The highest prediction was obtained by RSM turbulence model with LPS using standard wall function with the lowest values of MAPE (2.96%) and RMSE (369 Pa).

Highlights

Uniform water distribution along the drip irrigation lateral lines is effected by many factors
The other important factor is friction losses along the lateral, which is related to construction and spacing of the drip emitter and pipe roughness
The general properties of the drip irrigation laterals are given in Figure 1 and Table 1

Summary

Introduction

Uniform water distribution along the drip irrigation lateral lines is effected by many factors. Several of them are related to the external influences that are emitter clogging, emitter manufacturing variations, water temperature differences etc. The other important factor is friction losses along the lateral, which is related to construction and spacing of the drip emitter and pipe roughness. The pressure distribution along the lateral line changes with the friction loss and the lateral slope. These pressure changes along the lateral directly affect the flow rates of drip emitter in the lateral line.

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Conclusion