Abstract

Uniform crop growth and subsequent higher production is possible if moisture is equally distributed, timely, in the vicinity of root zone. Several companies manufacture different components of drip and micro sprinkler systems. Farmers purchase those and install the system through technical experts or sometimes themselves. If the system is designed properly and installed correctly, then, the water application losses can be minimized following the time of operation of systems. However, the variation in water application depth should not be more, less than 10-15% for micro irrigation systems. As such it is essential verify the hydraulics, especially uniformity, of emitting devices whether each plant receive the desired discharge/ depth of water. In view of this, different micro sprinklers were evaluated for uniformity by Wilcox Swailes uniformity coefficient and distribution uniformity at different microsprinkler spacing and different operating pressures. The experiment was conducted on five different types of microsprinklers (coded for identification as MS-1, MS-11, MS-111, MS-IV and MS-V) at three operating pressures (1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 kg/cm2) and for micro sprinkler spacings of 3m × 3m, 4m × 4m, 5m × 5m. 6m × 6m, 7m × 7m, 8m × 8m, 9m × 9m and 10m × 10m. The depth distribution data obtained from the experiment was analysed for Wilcox-Swailes uniformity coefficient (UCC) and Merrium and Keller Distribution Uniformity (DU). The decreased values of Uniformity coefficient and distribution uniformity were observed with increase in spacing of microsprinklers. At the rated pressure (2kg/cm2), the maximum value of UCC (93.85%) was recorded for MS-V at 3m x 3m microsprinkler spacing with Wilcox-Swailes uniformity coefficient. The value of Hart uniformity confident was also highest (94.29%) at these pressure and spacing. The distribution uniformity recorded at these pressure and spacing for MS-V was 96.75%. More than desired value (70%) of Wilcox-Swailes uniformity coefficient was recorded only for MS-I, MS-III and MS-V for the spacings of 3m x 3m to 6m x 6m. For wider spacing (7m x 7m to 10m x 10m), the uniformity coefficients were less than 70% i.e. less than desired values. Considering the uniformity by Wilcox-Swailes and Merrium and Keller Criteria, MS-V shown superiority over all other microsprinklers.

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