UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA Faculty of Engineering Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering EAB3316 IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE ENGINEERING Title : Efficiency and Performance of The Sprinkler System GROUP MEMBERS MATRIC NUMBER MUHAMMAD NORAIMAN HAKIM BIN AHMAD ZAKI 202690 NORIZZAH BINTI ROSLE 203247 NURSYAFIQAH BINTI SAJI 201156 NUR SHAFIQAH ISMAIL 201165 SITI HAWA BINTI FAKHRULROJI 200376 Lecturer : En. Mohamed Azwan bin Mohamed Zawawi Date of submission : 31th May 2022 1.0 Introduction In this practical activity, we have set up a portable sprinkler system. Sprinkler irrigation system is a system of watering farms which works like normal rainfall. Water flow passes around through a system of pipes mainly by pumping. It is then separated through sprinklers so that it splits up into tiny water drops that fall to the ground. Spray heads at the terminals distribute the water over the entire soil surface. Sprinklers are suitable for application and usage in all types of gardens, landscaping, fields as they provide appropriate coverage for small to large blocks of land. The sprinklers are adaptable and suitable for use on nearly all types of irrigable soils as they are available in a wide range of discharge capacities. However, sprinkler systems can quickly clog due to sediments or rains, and large systems incur high capital investment costs. Basically, a sprinkler system or set-up arrangement typically consists of a pump, principal pipes, secondary pipes, lateral pipes, and sprinklers. A pump extracts water from the source and produces pressure for discharge into the pipe system. The pump must be able to supply water at the appropriate pressure so that the water is discharged at an optimum rate and volume suitable to the crop and soil type. Next, the principal pipes and secondary pipes are pipes which carry water from the pump to the laterals. In some cases, these pipelines are installed on the soil surface or buried below the land surface. In some cases, they are temporary and can be transferred from one field to another. The primary materials used for the pipe include asbestos cement, plastic, or aluminum alloy. Meanwhile, the lateral pipes transport water from pipes to the sprinklers. They can be permanent, but mostly they are portable and made of aluminum alloy or plastic so that they can be moved quickly. Sprinklers can be defined as the water-emitting devices that transform and disperse the water jet into tiny droplets. The arrangement of sprinklers is made so as to wet the soil surface in the desired area as evenly as possible. Some examples of sprinkler irrigation systems are hand-held, solid set, centre pivot, traveling big gun, and many more. Throughout the practical, some data such as the distributed water within sprinklers radius would be recorded in order to calculate the irrigation distribution uniformity (Du). Based on the result, we could find the efficiency of the sprinkler in delivering water within its radius. 2.0 Equipment 8 sets of sprinkler (butterfly head), pipeline, pump, cone-shaped rain gauge, flow meter, pressure gauge, valve 3.0 Procedure This activity consists of two parts. The first part was to analyse the efficiency of the sprinkler system. The second part was to study the performance of the sprinkler system. 3.1 Efficiency of sprinkler 1. Sprinklers are installed on the lateral pipeline. Each line of pipeline would have 4 sets of sprinklers. 2. Pump is connected to the main water source. 3. The arrangement of the sprinklers and pump are shown as in Figure 1 below. Figure 1. Arrangement of sprinklers. 4. Cone-shaped rain gauge is placed on the ground at a distance of 1 meter on each side around all the sprinklers. The arrangement of the rain gauges are shown as in Figure 2. Figure 2. Arrangement of sprinkler with cone-shaped rain gauge. 5. To start the operation, the pump is switched on. The sprinklers are allowed to operate for 15 minutes. 6. After 15 minutes of irrigation operation, water measurements in each cone-shaped rain gauge are measured and recorded. 3.2 Performance of sprinkler 1. Sprinklers are installed and arranged as shown in Figure 1. 2. Junctions were created at the lateral pipeline between the sprinkler in each row. Valve and flowmeter are installed at each junction form in the chosen row. 3. A pressure gauge is installed in the main pipeline and the other two pressure gauges are installed at two chosen lateral pipelines. 4. The arrangement of the valves, flowmeter and pressure gauge are shown in Figure 3. Figure 3. Arrangement of pressure gauges, flow meter and valves. 5. To start the operation, the pump is switched on. The sprinklers are allowed to operate for several minutes. 6. The measurement of flow rate is observed on each flow meter and then recorded. 4.0 Results Table 1. Data for cone rain gauge for sprinkler irrigation system. Figure 4. Diagram of sprinkler irrigation system with cone rain gauge. Figure 5. Diagram of sprinkler irrigation system with pump, flowmeter and pressure gauge. Flowrate for each sprinkler at lateral 1: 3 ๐น๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ก ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ 1, ๐๐ = 1. 044 ๐ โ๐ ๐๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ = 4 ๐๐ = ๐ × ๐๐ 3 1. 044 ๐ โ๐ = 4 × ๐๐ 3 ๐๐ = 1.044 ๐ โ๐ 4 3 ๐๐ = 0. 261 ๐ โ๐ ๐๐ = 4. 350 ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ก ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ 1 ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐โ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ = 4. 350 ๐ ๐๐๐ Flowrate for each sprinkler at lateral 2: 3 ๐น๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ก ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ 1, ๐๐ = 0. 956 ๐ โ๐ ๐๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ = 4 ๐๐ = ๐ × ๐๐ 3 0. 956 ๐ โ๐ = 4 × ๐๐ 3 ๐๐ = 0.956 ๐ โ๐ 4 3 ๐๐ = 0. 239 ๐ โ๐ ๐๐ = 3. 983 ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ก ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ 2 ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐โ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ = 3. 893 ๐ ๐๐๐ Flowrate for each sprinkler at lateral 2: 3 ๐น๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ก ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ 1, ๐๐ = 0. 238 ๐ โ๐ ๐๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ = 4 ๐๐ = ๐ × ๐๐ 3 0. 238 ๐ โ๐ = 4 × ๐๐ 3 ๐๐ = 0.238 ๐ โ๐ 4 3 ๐๐ = 0. 0595 ๐๐ = 0. 992 ๐ โ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ก ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ 2 ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐โ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ = 0. 992 ๐ ๐๐๐ Average application rate of an individual sprinkler for sprinkler at lateral 1: The amount collected in all gauges is obtained from one of the sprinklers that is located at lateral 1. For lateral 1, the measurement cone rain gauge that was used to calculate the application depth is cones 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 49, 50 and 51 that are located surrounding the sprinkler. ๐ด๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐กโ = ๐๐ข๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ข๐๐ก ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ข๐๐๐ ๐๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ข๐๐๐ ๐ด๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐กโ = 7 + 5 + 8.5 + 3 + 6.5 + 0 + 3.5 +2.5 8 ๐ด๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐กโ = 4.5๐๐ 1000 = 4. 5 ๐๐ = 0. 0045๐ ๐น๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐โ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ = 4. 350 ๐/๐๐๐ ( 2) ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ( 2) ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐ก, ๐ = 60 ( = โก 4. 350 โฃ = 14. 5 ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ 2 ) × 15๐๐๐ ÷ 1000โค ÷ 0. 0045๐ โฆ ๐ด๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐ = ๐ด ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐โ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด = ๐ ( ) ๐๐ โ๐ ( ), ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ = 4. 350 ๐/๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ด1 = 60 4.350 ๐/๐๐๐ 2 14.5 ๐ = 18 ๐๐ โ๐ Repeat this calculation to determine the application rate of an individual sprinkler for sprinkler at lateral 2 and lateral 3. Table 2. Flowrate and application rate of sprinkler at each lateral 5.0 Discussion The lab experiment was carried out to determine the operation and performance of the sprinkler system at the field. The arrangement of the sprinkler system that was set out at the field is 12×12 of area of the whole sprinkler system with 12 sprinklers. Table 1 shows the data for the cone rain gauge for the sprinkler system that has been used to determine the volume of water that has been distributed by each sprinkler in the system. Based on Figure 1, there are 51 cone rain gauges set up in the field of the sprinkler irrigation system where each sprinkler has eight cone rain gauges within 2 m distance from the sprinkler. Based on Table 1, the highest measurement inside the cone is the 40th cone rain gauge that is located between 10th and 11th sprinkler. The sprinklers are located at Lateral 3 where it is closed to the pump system and this generates sufficient pressure for the sprinkler nozzle or water jet to operate well. Meanwhile the lowest measurements inside the cone are 1st, 43th and 50th. Three of the cone rain gauges have 0 mm of measurement due to the low pressure of the sprinklers where the water jet does not break up and the water tends to fall outside the wetted area. The friction in the sprinkler system increases and this causes the sprinkler operation and efficiency to decrease. The Lateral 1 of the sprinkler has obstruction such as trees that prevents the distributed water to be collected in the cone rain gauge. Thus, some of the cone rain gauge has a low value of measurement inside the cone. Based on Table 2, it shows the flow rate, application rate and average pressure of the sprinkler at each lateral in the sprinkler system. The highest flow rate is 1.044 m3/hr at the Lateral 1 with application rate of 18 mm/ hr meanwhile the lowest flow rate is 0.238 m3/hr at Lateral 3 with application rate of 16.90 mm/hr. Lateral 1 has 17.24 kPa of average pressure meanwhile Lateral 3 has 24.13 kPa of average pressure, same with Lateral 2. The rate of flow in each lateral was delivered by pump system and due to insufficient pump system, the rate of flow in each lateral is different. Hence, the flow rate will increase when pump pressure increases but, in this experiment, the flow rate is increased when the average pressure is increased. This might be affected by equipment error such as insufficient flow meter gauge reading or the poor operation of the pump system. Based on table 12.1, the sprinkler that was used in this experiment was a very low pressure with a pressure range between 34 kPa and 105 kPa. The wetted diameter of the butterfly single arm sprinkler used to irrigate the soil is in the range of 6 to 8 m, and water application rates are approximately 10 mm/hr. The water drop size for this type of sprinkler is fair, and the distribution of water is fair. Besides, this type of sprinkler was suitable for small acreage confined to soil. Therefore, a proper pump system needs to be chosen for the high efficiency of the sprinkler system at the field. 6.0 Conclusion The technology levels of the experiment determine the choice of the irrigation installing method. This lab develops a skill in analyzing the performance of irrigation systems to meet the water requirement of the crop. Students can develop a skill in analyzing the performance of irrigation systems to meet the water requirement of the crop. Irrigation is installed in the field to reduce the amount of human power required to irrigate the plants. The use of a sprinkler can assist a worker in watering a big area of plants. It can also save water by ensuring that all of the plants receive the same amount of water. To guarantee that the system is functioning properly, the water pressure and pipe length must be carefully estimated to avoid licking or, even worse, pipe explosion. Furthermore, students are able to practice about irrigation systems that had been taught theoretically in class that had been taken, which is EAB 3316 Irrigation and Drainage Engineering. From that, students become familiar with the design, construction and operating principles of an irrigation installation as primary watering equipment. Not only that, by performing the sprinkler, this helps the students to develop skill in analysing the performance of the sprinkler. 7.0 Appendix Figure 6. The set up of a portable sprinkler system. Figure 7. The cone-shaped rain gauge is placed 1 meter each side of the sprinkler. Figure 8. Encik Azwan demonstrated how to install the pump. Figure 9. The time taken was recorded for 15 minutes.
