Planning and Calculating A Pipe Drip Irrigation System

March 15, 2009 at 8:32 pm · Filed under Drip irrigation ·Tagged Agriculture, atm, Drip irrigation, drip irrigation system, drip irrigation systems, dripper, drippers, earth structure, Filtration, flow rate, gradient, heaps, High pressure, interval, irrigation systems, minimum time, pipes, plant root, precaution, projection area, structure of earth, time time, Ultraviolet, Volumetric flow rate

Before planning drip irrigation system, some preparations should be made and should be had an idea about how planning can be made for this system. For this purpose these point should be cared.

a. State of the Land: Before planning drip irrigation system, the size, gradient, structure of earth of land should be known. Size of the land is very important criteria for placing main pipe and drippers.Although drip irrigation systems work with pressure as closed system, they can not be used after a specific gradient value without some precaution. For instance; if gradient is more than %10, pressure as 1 atm is occured between the bottom and the top side. If it is %20 this preasure increases to 2 atm. If land is being irrigated with one main pipe, the pressure at the top will be 1 atm and the pressure at the bottom will be 3 atm. So the water wil come out with pressure instead of dripping and dripping system will lose the speciality. In dripping systems, pressure shoul be between 0,5 – 1,5 atm. So this system should not be used in the lands that have gradient more than 10%, with one main pipe. This problem can be solved by using special dripping pipe that works under high pressure or using valves that decreases the pressure. At the same time, dripping pipes should be placed upright to the gradient. In this way, the difference of flow rate that is caused by pressure between the first dripping head and the last head is prevented.

It is important to know the structure of earth that this system will be used. Because in the heaps of time, time that passes during the water comes from dripper and goes to the area of plant root depends on the earth structure. This is very important criteria to know the minimum time for irrigation.

b. Plant Type : In drip irrigation systems, it is required to know the plant type, height of the plant and petal projection area. With these informations pipe quantity, dripper distance, dripping line length can be determined.

c. Planting Interval and Distance : It is required to know planting interval and distance for determining pipe thickness, distance between the drippers and line length and calculating the total quantity pipe that will be used.

d. State and the Distance of Water Source : Before using drip irrigation system, it is required to know whether the water comes from well, or open canal, or static pool, or small lake and it is required to be sure that this source has enough flow rate. Position of the source is important according to the land. If source is under the land more motor power is required, if it is above less motor power is required. At the same time it is important to know the distance between the land and the source for calculating the length of the main pipe.

e. Quality of Water : Water that is used in drip irrigation should not be too salty. If salty water is used in drip irrigation system, it can cause cumulation of salt around the plant and the earth becomes more salty. At the same time, mossy, silty water should not be used in drip irrigation system before filtering. The water that is used for irrigation can include lime(little or much) and this can close the dripping holes.
So this blockage can be invented by adding asid according to the rate of lime in the water.

f. Technical Properties of the Material That Will Be Used : Nowadays mostly dripping pipes are made from the dripper, based on point. Dripping capacity of the drippers that is produced, is clear (in one hour and fixed pressure) and should be learned from the seller. In market place, generally dripping pipes that have 4 liter/hour dripping capacity is sold. When determining the length of the line and the number of drippers, diameter of the pipe and dripping capacity of drippers should be cared. Also if the main pipe will be placed on the earth, it should be produced from the material that is not effected from the harm of UV gleam. Furthermore filtration capacity of the filter that will be used and maximum flow rate that main pipe can carry should be known.

g. Economic Conditions : Drip irrigation system is an expensive system. Before using this system, cost of the project should be determined and then should be applied to the land.

You may want to look ” Literal extending distance of drip irrigation” .

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