A Comprehensive Model for Hydraulic Analysis and Wetting Patterns Simulation under Subsurface Drip Laterals

Abstract

In the absence of suitable specialized models to simulate the soil wetting patterns in subsurface drip irrigation systems considering the hydraulic conditions along the laterals, a new model was developed and named a “comprehensive model” in this study. This model couples the subsurface drip irrigation lateral characteristics with the soil hydraulic properties and utilizes the Hydrus-3D software as a complementary section of the model to simulate the wetting front beneath the lateral. To evaluate the model, three 16 mm drip-line pipes of 62 m length with 20, 40, and 50 cm spacing emitters and 2 to 5 L/h discharge were buried at 0.2 m depth in a soil box containing clay loamy soil. Then, the experiments were conducted at 50, 100, and 150 kPa pressures, and the wetting pattern geometry associated with each lateral was measured at 1, 2, 3, and 24 h and compared with the model simulations. Moreover, the values of the root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and the refined index of agreement of the wetting depth beneath the lateral ranged from 0.013 to 0.03 m, 0.002 to 0.004 m, and 0.886 to 0.927 m, respectively. In addition, the mentioned indexes values at the first and the last cross-sections of the laterals varied between 0.001 and 0.004 m, 0.011 and 0.035 m, 0.814 and 0.942 m, respectively. These results proved that the differences between measured and predicted dimensions of the wetting pattern are not significant and comprehensive model provides good estimations of the emitter flow rates, as well as realistic wetting patterns.