Food Engineering Research

Current Issue

By Issue

By Author

By Subject

Author Index

Keyword Index

About Journal

Aims and Scope

Publication Ethics

Indexing and Abstracting

FAQ

Peer Review Process

Journal Metrics

News

Hydraulic Characteristics of Porous Clay Capsules in a Subsurface Irrigation System at Three Soil Textures

Document Type : Research Paper

Abstract

The latest recommendations of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage from the 8th Micro-irrigation Congress held in 2011 in Iran was to develop a global orientation for subsurface micro-irrigation methods. The congress focused attention on the international dimensions of water scarcity, especially in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Aridity and the cumulative effect of successive droughts in Iran have made the clay subsurface irrigation system of concern to farmers, experts, and researchers. Although this irrigation method is traditional and has both advantages and disadvantages over other subsurface micro-irrigation methods, with modification to its mechanism, it can be a suitable application for Iran. The hydraulic properties of porous clay capsules have a major effect on the performance of clay subsurface irrigation systems. The present study determined the relationship between seepage rate-time and seepage rate-hydrostatic pressure of porous clay capsules used in clay subsurface irrigation systems. The experiments examined three soil textures (sandy loam, silty clay loam, silty clay) under actual field conditions on the large scale. They were conducted as a randomized complete block design with a split plot layout and three replications. The results obtained over three months of operation at 2, 3 and 4 m of hydrostatic pressure show that the daily seepage rate of porous clay capsules were significantly affected by soil texture. In addition, the effect of operating pressure on the seepage rate of porous clay capsules in the three soils was significant. Also, the results of testing of seepage rate-hydrostatic pressure over a two-week period for the three soil types showed a nonlinear relationship (power) between the two irrigation system design factors. The best hydrostatic pressure for porous clay capsules in the three soil textures was 3.5-4 m.

Keywords

References
Abu-Zreig, M. and Atoum, M. F. 2004. Hydraulic characteristics and seepage modelling of clay pitchers produced in Jordan. Canad. Biosys. Eng. 46(1): 15-20.
Abu-Zreig, M., Y. Abe, Y. and Isoda, H. 2006. The Auto-regulative capability of pictcher irrigation system. Agric. Water Manage. 85: 272-278.
Abu-Zreig, M., Khdair, A. and Alazba, A. 2009. Factors affecting water seepage rate of clay pitchers in arid lands. University Sharjah. J. Pur. Appl. Sci. 6(1): 59-80.
Ajit, N., Virendra, K., Mahesh, K., Purohit, R. C. and  Singhvi, B. S. 2007. Hydraulic study of earthen pitchers. J. Agric. Eng. 44(2): 156-164.
Ashrafi, Sh., Gupta, A., Singh, M. B., Izumi, N. and Loof, N. 2002. Simulation of infiltration from porous clay pipe in subsurface irrigation. Hydrol. Sci. J. 47(2): 253-268.
Bahrami, H. A., Ghorbani-Vaghei, H., Alizadeh, P., Nasiri, F. and Mahallati, Z. 2011. Fuzzy modeling of soil water distribution using porous clay capsule irrigation from a subsurface point source. Sens. Lett. 8(1): 75-80.
Bainbridge, D. A. 2001. Buried clay pot irrigation: A little known but very efficient traditional method of irrigation. Agric. Water Manage. 48, 79-88.
Batchelor, C., Christopher, L. and Murata, M. 1996. Simple microirrigation techniques for improving irrigation efficiency on vegetable gardens. Agric. Water Manage. 32, 37-48.
Behnia, A. K. and Arab-Fard, M. 2005. Determination of discharge-pressure relation of pitchers using in pitcher irrigation. Agri. Sci. Technol. J. 19(1): 1-12. (in Farsi)
Ghorbani-Vaghei, H., Bahrami, H. A., Alizadeh, P. and Nasiri, F. 2011. Hydraulic characteristics of porous clay capsules and its effect on soil moisture distribution. J. Water Res. Agric. 9(5): 131-140. (in Farsi)
Ghorbani-Vaghei, H., Bahrami, H. A., Alizadeh, P., Nasiri, F. and Mahallati, Z. 2010. Improving physical and hydraulic properties of porous clay capsules from a subsurface point source. Twin International Conference on Geotechnical and Geo-Environmental Engineering CUM (7th) Ground Improvement Techniques. June 23-25. Seoul. Korea.
Gupta, A. D., Singh-Babel, M. and Ashrafi, S. 2009. Effect of soil texture on the emission characteristics of porous clay pipe for subsurface irrigation. Irrig. Sci. 27, 201-208.
Hussain, G., Al-Jaloud, A. A., Al-Shammafy, S. A., Karimulla, S. and Al-Aswad, S. O. 1997. Effect of saline irrigation on germination and growth parameters of barley in a pot experiment. Agric. Water Manage. 34(2): 125-135.
Kazemi, A. A., Karegar, A. R., Karegar, H., Sadri, S., Dehghan, A., Ghazanfarain, V. A. and Karbalaei, H. 2003. Assessment of subsurface pitcher irrigation on tree vegetation in desert area with clay pipes. J. Fore. Past. 74, 88-93. (in Farsi)
Majidi, E., Zarei, Gh., Keshavarz, A., Hejazi, S. M. 2009. Assessment of possibility of subsurface clay pipe irrigation method for agricultural and horticultural crops. Research Report . No. 88/281. Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO). (in Farsi)
Naik, B. S., Panda, R. K., Nayak, S. C. and Sharma, S. D. 2008. Hydraulics and salinity profile of pitcher irrigation in saline water condition. Agric. Water Manage. 95, 1129-1134.
Saleh, E. and Setiawan, B. I. 2010. Numerical modeling of soil moisture profiles under pitcher irrigation application. Agric. Eng. Int. CIGR J. 12(2): 14-20.
Siyal, A. A. and Skaggs, T. H. 2009. Measured and simulated soil wetting pattern under porous clay pipe subsurface irrigation. Agric. Water Manage. 96, 893-904.
Siyal, A. A., Van-Genuchten, M. T. and Skaggs, T. H. 2009. Performance of pitcher irrigation system. Soil Sci. 174(6): 312-320.
Stien, T. M. 1998. Development of design criteria for pitcher irrigation. Ph. D. Thesis. Crandfield Institute of Technology. Silsio College.
Vasudevan, P., Thapliyal, A., Dastida, M. G. and Sen, P. K. 2007. Pitcher or clay pot irrigation for water conservation. Proceedings of the International Conference on Mechanical Engineering. Dec. 29-31. Daka. Bangladesh. 29-31.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Food Engineering Research
Volume 14, Issue 4 - Serial Number 4
January 0
Pages 57-72
Files
Share
How to cite
Statistics