Porous emitter irrigation: characterization and simulation

Porous emitters are proposed as an alternative irrigation system for and and semiarid regions. A detailed home-made production line of porous emitters is described. Two materials with different proportions of sand, clay, and silt were tested. Material A (61.7% sand) showed lower coefficients of variation in topology (compaction and connectivity) than material B (46.7 %) with 2.6%. A morphological method was performed to estimate emitter porosity; however, microscopic effects influence emitter porosity. A comparison of three different methods to assess porous emitter saturated hydraulic conductivity (K-s) was performed. Monte Carlo's simulation of the fractal porous space and head constant permeameter showed similar results in computing K-s. Marshall's method underestimates K-s in both materials in spite of material 1 having a more homogeneous particle distribution. It was stated that K-s is an important parameter for designing porous emitter irrigation. Finally, emitter-soil iteration was simulated by using Hydrus 2D for three different soil textures and three operation heads. Heavy soil texture treatment presented a smaller wetted diameter, however, low water content differences were found for different operation heads close to the emitter.