Comparison between Open and Closed Drip Irrigation System in Engineering Aspects Atef, A. Nassar,1, Mohamed, A. M. Moursy2, Ahmed, M. Ali2 and Mohamed, H. Rady2 Abstract This study aims to compare the open and closed drip irrigation system in engineering, aspects such as head losses along lateral (m), flow through lateral (lit/h), allocative efficiency and economic will be considered also. The field experimental carried out during 2016 in Wadi EL Natroon station of Water Management and Irrigation System Research Institute, El-Behera Governorate. The drip irrigation network consist of control head (valves, flow meter, pressure gauges, air and safety valve), uPVC φ 63 mm main-line 6 bar, uPVC φ 50 mm 6 bar sub-main, and PE φ 16 mm laterals line 6 bar distributed on the sub-main each 30 cm and turbo key emitters 4 l/hr distributed each 50 cm on the lateral lines. This network adapted to irrigate maize crop. The difference between closed and open system is the second sub-main pipe which is install in the end of the laterals to close the water flow direction in circular. The results of the study showed that the application efficiency were 84.2 and 85.9%, while in emission uniformity is 85.9% and 87.6% for open and closed system, respectively. The closed system increased the germination ratio and seed yield by 4 and 11.9 compared with open system. The initial costs reduced by 8.2% in open drip irrigation compared with close one. Therefore, it is recommended to use closed drip irrigation system with 25 m lateral length and 1.6 bar operating pressure. Key words: Open and Closed drip irrigation, Application efficiency, Germination ratio, Yield INTRODUCTION A hydraulics characteristic through irrigation network is an important performance criterion that must be considered in the design, operation and management of irrigation systems for increasing agricultural productivity. Hydraulic design seems to be only one of the minor factors in the evaluation of overall uniformity of a micro-irrigation system. Drip irrigation can potentially provide high application efficiency and achieve high application uniformity. Subsequently, both active factors are important in producing uniformly high crop yields and preserving water quality, when both water and chemicals are applied through the irrigation system. Drip irrigation system is the best method that has been used in the world among the other irrigation methods because of its good and high uniformity. This method distributes water 1 2
Prof. Water Management and Irrigation System Research Institute, NWRC.
[email protected] Researcher - Water Management Irrigation System Research Institute, NWRC.
[email protected]
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