Application of Philip infiltration model to film hole irrigation

Abstract

Numerical simulations were carried out with HYDRUS-2D to investigate the influence of soil texture, initial water content, film hole diameter and water depth on cumulative infiltration from a film hole. Soil texture, film hole diameter and water depth are the dominant influencing factors. Philip infiltration model was used to fit the simulated results of the dominant influencing factors. For the same soil, the sorptivity (s) is a power function relationship with film hole diameter, while the steady infiltration rate (a) is a power function relationship with film hole diameter and water depth. On that basis, the calculation formulas for predicting s and a were established, and a simplified film hole infiltration model including the film hole diameter and water depth was proposed. The effectiveness of the model was verified by laboratory experiments and literature data. The predicted values of the model were in good agreement with the experimental observations. The model parameters can be determined only by a set of film hole infiltration experiment, which simplifies the experimental design and can be used as a tool for irrigation engineers or farmers to estimate cumulative infiltration.