Effect of Fluctuated Water Pressure Flushing Treatment on the Anticlogging Performance of Pressure Compensated Emitter

Abstract

Emitters are widely used in drip irrigation technology. The clogging problem caused by emitters shortens the service life and affects the popularization of drip irrigation technology. Using fluctuating water pressure irrigation and flushing drip line can prevent the emitter from clogging. In order to explore the clogging characteristics and the mechanism of water and sediment movement of emitters under fluctuated pressure flushing, the authors selected the patch-type pressure compensation emitter as the research object and chose two flushing water modes (fluctuated pressure, constant pressure) and three flushing frequencies (4, 8, and 12 days) for anticlogging performance testing in this paper. The change of clogging characteristics (Dra, Cu) under different flushing treatments was studied, and the content of silted sediment in the drip line was also analyzed. The gradation comparison and particle size analysis of the discharged sediment and clogged sediment from the emitter were carried out by using the laser particle size analyzer. The results show that (1) using fluctuated water pressure under high-frequency flushing treatment can significantly improve the service life of emitters. Under the coupling effect of the two, the service life of the emitter increases by 105.96%. (2) Different flushing treatments significantly impact the specific surface area blockage content (p<0.05), with M2 decreasing by a maximum of 55.54%. (3) Fluctuated water pressure flushing treatment acts on the sediment in the stagnant area of the flow channel, enabling it to return to the mainstream zone quickly and discharge from the body. Moreover, it promotes the discharge of sand particles and sensitive sediment (30–38 μm, 75–100 μm) and significantly reduces blocked sediment’s upper limit particle size. The research results provide an experimental basis for fluctuated pressure flushing treatment of emitters.