Orthogonal tests and precipitation estimates for the outside signal fluidic sprinkler

Abstract

A new outside signal fluidic sprinkler is proposed in this paper. Its main structural parameters include offset length (A), working area length (B), plate cover diameter (C), and lead-flow length (D). An orthogonal array with four factors and three levels was selected to carry out the experiments. The factors influencing the coefficient of uniformity (CU) and range, in decreasing order of importance, were BADC and CDBA, respectively. The optimal values for the structural parameters were confirmed. The radial water distribution data for the sprinkler were obtained by experimentation. Water distribution figure for single sprinkler was drawn using Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB), which allowed for three-dimensional visualization of the data. The combined CU of the outside signal fluidic sprinkler was simulated for different combined spacing patterns. The CU was much larger in the rectangular configuration than in the triangular configuration. When the combined spacing coefficient was 1.2 to 1.3, the CU was found to exceed 75% in both the rectangular and triangular configurations.