Evaluation of hydraulic performance characteristics of a newly designed dynamic fluidic sprinkler

Abstract

A newly designed dynamic fluidic sprinkler was tested with different types of nozzles at different operating pressures. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to evaluate the hydraulic performance of a newly designed dynamic fluidic sprinkler. MATLAB R2014a software was employed to establish the computational program for the computed uniformity. Droplet sizes were determined using a Thies Clima Laser Precipitation Monitor. Results showed that the nozzle with a diameter of 5.5 mm gave the highest coefficient of uniformity value of 86% at a low pressure of 150 kPa. The comparison of water distribution profiles for the nozzle sizes (2, 3, 4, 5.5, 6 and 7 mm) at different operating pressures (100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 kPa) showed that a 5.5-mm nozzle size produced a parabola-shaped profile at 150 kPa. The mean droplet diameters for the nozzles sizes of 2, 3, 4, 5.5, 6 and 7 mm ranged from 0 to 4.2, 0 to 3.7, 0 to 3.6, 0 to 3.2, 0 to 0.5 and 0 to 3.8 mm, respectively. The comparison of droplet size distributions showed that 5.5 mm had the optimum droplet diameter of 3.2 mm. The largest droplet sizes had a maximum value of 4.0 for a 2-mm nozzle size. For all the nozzles sizes, 5.5 mm produced better results for hydraulic performance, which can significantly improve the performance and save water for crop production in sprinkler-irrigated fields.