Study of In-Situ Wetting Pattern of Drip Irrigation System under Different Emitter's Discharge and Different Soil

摘要

The wetting pattern is an important factor to consider for designing and managing a drip irrigation system. The dimensions of the wetting pattern are imperative in selecting the right spacing between emitters and the suitable distance between laterals. The field experiments with surface drip irrigation involving three discharge rates (2 lph, 4 lph and 8 lph). The experiment carried in on two different soil sandy clay loam and clay loam after determining various physical property of soil like moisturecontent, bulk density, field capacity. The experiments were conducted by drip emitters of different discharge rates on separate laterals on different beds for one hour. The horizontal spreading and vertical depth of infiltration of the water into soil was measured. The experiment concluded that when discharge rate increased from 2 lph to 4 lph then maximum horizontal distance was found to be increased by 44.4% and from 2 lph to 8 lph maximum horizontal spreading was found to be increased by 111.1%. While when discharge rate increased from 2 lph to 4 lph then maximum vertical distance was found to be decreased by 4.76% and from 2 lph to 8 lph maximum vertical distances was found to be decreased by 14.28%. Therefore, more is the discharge rate less is the vertical movement and vice-versa. It was also observed that the lateral movement of water is more for clay loam soil than the sandy clay loam soil while the vertical distance is greatest for sandy clay loam than the clay loam. Thus, the more is the sandy nature of the soil more is the vertical movement of water and comparatively less in lateral movement.