Hydraulic Design and Simulation of Different Combinations of Blocks Operating in Trickle Irrigation

Abstract

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.