Evaluation of performance indicators for furrow irrigation with perforated polyethylene half-pipe compared to conventional furrow irrigation.

Introduction: One of the ways to carry out surface irrigation is furrow irrigation, which is special for row crops. In this way the water by coming in parallel furrow, placed at the disposal of the plant and the intended plant are grown in ridges. In this method the irrigation efficiency is low and in some areas reach under thirty percent. Many methods have been proposed to increase the efficiency of this type of irrigation that has not been implemented yet due to various reasons. No experimental and practical work has been performed yet on the method of furrow irrigation with perforated half-pipe which is proposed in this research.
Material and methods: This research has been done in two steps. The first step was performed on a perforated half-pipe in the laboratory. The second step was performed in a greenhouse experiment in which performance indicators of water requirement efficiency, application efficiency, deep percolation ratio, distribution uniformity, and tail water ratio in the proposed method were compared with those of ordinary furrow irrigation in a created furrow of soil on a flume. In this study the choice of a half-pipe polyethylene 4 m long, which has a diameter of 250 mm holes in the laboratory with whole distance of 20 cm and a diameter of 5 mm on bed has been created. After discharge from the tube at three different times, 3 different discharges and 3 different slopes, water outlet holes were measured. In this study, the relationship between the discharge pipe, tube and floor slope time system performance was evaluated in comparison with the value of water delivered. Since the percentage of the floor slope is a dimensionless parameter, therefore, in the analyses and comparison of the experiment results, the ratio of discharge (runoff discharge divided by inflow rate) instead of discharge and the ratio of time (advance time divided by the time of system operation) instead of time is used.
Result and desiccation: The results of the first step of the research on the perforated half-tube in the laboratory showed that there is the best uniformity of distribution compared to other modes when the discharge ratio, time ratio, and gradient are respectively (0.3020), (272/0) and (2.6%). In this case, the depth of infiltration was almost uniform from beginning to end. In the second stage, the perforated half-pipe was tested in the sandy soil furrow in a flume in the greenhouse, as well as the sandy furrow was tested alone and the results were compared. In these tests the slope of 2.6%, flow ratio of 0.302 and times ratio of 0.272 were adjusted. The five key performance indicators were calculated for both rigorous testing revealed that even experiments with perforated pipe that has higher runoff than in the usual method, but others including distribution uniformity is much better than a usual irrigation.
Conclusion: The best results obtained from the data analysis are when the slope is 2.62%, the discharge rate is 3.31 times the tail water runoff and the operating time of the system is 3.67 times the advance time. This method is used in small farms where pressure irrigation systems cannot be applied, also in low flows that water movement is slow and deep percolation losses are high, and the duration of irrigation and labor costs increases, in farms where the number of agricultural land is high and they are managed in a small way, the method is very usable. Therefore, from an economic and social perspective, and simple to implement, it is very practical and suitable for farmers.
Key words: furrow irrigation, furrow irrigation with perforated half-pipe, surface irrigation