Comparison of droplet distributions from fluidic and impact sprinklers

Abstract

To adapt to the trend toward low-energy precision irrigation, the droplet distributions for two new prototype sprinklers, outside signal sprinkler (OS) and fluidic sprinkler (FS), were compared with impact sprinkler (IS). A laser precipitation monitor was used to measure the droplet distributions. Droplet size and velocity distributions were tested under four operating pressures for nozzles 1.5 m above the ground. For the operating pressures tested, the mean OS, FS and IS droplet diameters ranged from 0 to 3.4, 0 to 3.5, 0 to 4.0 mm, respectively. The mean OS and FS droplet velocities ranged from 0 to 6.3 m·s^-1, whereas IS ranged from 0 to 6.3 m·s^-1. Being gas-liquid fluidic sprinklers, droplet distributions of the OS and FS were similar, although not identical. IS mostly produced a 0.5 mm larger droplet diameter and a 0.5 m·s^-1 greater velocity than OS and FS. A new empirical equation is proposed for determination of droplet size for OS and FS, which is sufficiently accurate and simple to use. Basic statistics for droplet size and velocity were performed on data obtained by the photographic methods. The mean droplet diameter (arithmetic, volumetric and median) decreased and the mean velocity increased in operating pressure for the three types of sprinkler.

Keywords

outside signal sprinkler / fluidic sprinkler / impact sprinkler / sprinkler irrigation / droplet size / droplet velocity

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the Program for National Hi-Tech Research and Development of China (2011AA100506), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51309117), and the Six Talent Peaks Project in Jiangsu Province (ZBZZ-018).

ƒXingye Zhu, Shouqi Yuan, Junping Liu and Xingfa Liu declare that they have no conflict of interest or financial conflicts to disclose.ƒThis article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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