HYDRAULIC DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS OF BLOCKS OPERATING IN TRICKLE IRRIGATION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15809/irriga.2022v27n4p715-728Abstract
There is little open-source software for trickle irrigation design and none of it is designed to simulate operating conditions on a specific hydraulic network already assembled in the field. Farmers employing trickle irrigation frequently need to change irrigation block operations over the years (parcel combinations), because of plant renovations in certain areas of the irrigated field or the adoption of precision irrigation. This work free software developed using Visual Basic® language that is able to simulate different block combinations of parcels, taking into consideration the pump parameters of flowrate, pressure, power requirements and efficiency and the main hydraulic network parameters of water speed, pressure and head loss. The software we developed was applied to a trickle irrigation system for citrus growing. The equations used to calculate head loss were Hazen-Williams and Darcy-Weisbach, and users could choose between these two equations depending on their application. The software worked efficiently for making the hydraulic calculations, providing simulations that graphically assisted users in choosing which combination of operation parcels (block combinations) and pump parameters (rotation speed and impeller diameter) for optimal operation of the irrigation system. The program ensured that the pressure along the irrigation network was compatible with the nominal operating pressure of the pipeline and safety valves.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 IRRIGA

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
This magazine provides public access to all its content, following the principle that free access to research generates greater global knowledge exchange. Such access is associated with a growing reading and citation of an author's work. The copyright of articles published in Revista Irriga is the property of the authors, with first publication rights for the journal. Because they appear in this publicly accessible magazine, articles are free to use, for their own purposes, for educational and non-commercial purposes. Further details can be obtained at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0