Get Basic Irrigation Hydraulics Student Workbook 2020-2024

Finding the Flow Rate or GPM Equation: Static pressure – friction loss +/-- change in elevation = psi available to sprinkler. Example: You measure your static pressure at 65 psi and your total flow rate from your spigot at 10 gpm.

Pertaining to irrigation, velocity is how fast the water is moving in the pipe. It is analogous to the speed of your car traveling down the highway. It is most commonly measured in feet per second (fps). Velocity control is important in any irrigation system.

An Irrigation system requires a water source, a method to transport the water and a method to distribute the water to the soil. Irrigation is used to supplement water during dry periods, increase productivity of coarse soils (sandy), improve the crop quality of water-sensitive crops and reduce risk of crop loss.

1) Static pressure is a measurement of the pressure of water at rest; dynamic pressure is the measurement of water in motion. 2) Pressure is created in an irrigation system either by a drop in elevation (water going downhill) or by the use of a pump.

The nozzles mounted on the riser pipes are fixed at uniform intervals along the length of the pipe laid on the ground surface called as lateral pipes. Water is supplied from the source to laterals through network of pipes consisting of mainline and sub mainline, called as main and sub main.

Remove a few sprinkler heads from each of the zones in your system and cap the plumbing that led to them. Decreasing the number of sprinkler heads will increase the water pressure in those that remain.

As water moves through an irrigation system, pressure is lost because of turbulence created by the moving water. This turbulence can be created in pipes, valves, or fittings. These pressure losses are referred to as “friction losses.”

Static and dynamic1 pressure: • Static pressure is a measurement of water pressure when the water is at rest. In other words, the water is not moving in the system. Dynamic pressure is a measurement of water pressure with the water in motion (also known as working pressure).

In irrigation system, hydraulic design is used for uniform application of water in a field. The discharge from each emitter is the function of the pressure head. So, hydraulic design is the pursuit of pressure head distribution along the lateral line.