Head Loss Characteristics in Polytubes in Micro Irrigation System

A study was conducted at the WREMI, Baroda to study the characteristics of head loss at the head of poly tubes attached to the lateral line, and inlet pressure in micro tubes attached to the micro manifold of a micro irrigation system. Determination of head loss and inlet pressure at different segments is very important in order to design an efficient micro irrigation system. Keeping this in mind, head loss characteristics was studied through the entire poly tube as well as at the head of poly tubes at the point of attachment to the lateral line as influenced by diameter, length and discharge of poly tubes; and at the head of poly tubes influenced by discharge through lateral line only. Further, the inlet pressure characteristics of micro tubes attached to micro manifold at different positions viz: centre, left, and right in a single outlet system; and at left and centre, and centre and right of micro manifold in a double outlet system was also studied. A laboratory set up was made and the observations were recorded using the data-loggers. The nonlinear regression equations were developed for predicting the head losses and inlet pressures in micro tubes using the DATAFIT software.