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Formation mechanism for emitter composite-clogging in drip irrigation system

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Abstract

Revealing the mechanism and influential path of emitter clogging in drip irrigation is the basis to control this issue. Eight commonly used flat emitters were tested to analyze the effects of emitter flow path geometric parameters on the hydraulic indexes, clogging performance, and composition of clogging substances, and the influential path was established through the path analysis method. The results indicated that the average cross-sectional velocity (v) was significantly correlated to clogging degrees and clogging substance formation. v directly affected the formation of clogging substance components, and was influenced by the width–depth ratio (W/D) and the relative radius (A1/2/L). Among all the components of the clogging substances, solid particle (SP), and CaCO3 and MgCO3 precipitates (C–MP) directly affected emitter clogging process, while phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) and extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) mainly relied on the indirect impacts. Therefore, emitter with larger v rather than that with larger Q should be a better choice from the perspective of the anti-clogging performance, and larger v could be obtained through the optimized design of emitter structure by controlling the appropriate ranges of W/D and A1/2/L.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the financial support from the National Key Research Project of China (2017YFD0201504), and the National Natural Science Fund of China (51479197, 51621061).

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  1. Yunkai Li and Ji Feng equally contributed to this paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Yunkai Li, Ji Feng, Song Xue, Tahir Muhammad, Xiuzhi Chen, Naiyang Wu, Weishan Li & Bo Zhou

  2. College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Bo Zhou

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  1. Yunkai Li
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  2. Ji Feng
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  3. Song Xue
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  4. Tahir Muhammad
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  5. Xiuzhi Chen
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  6. Naiyang Wu
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  7. Weishan Li
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  8. Bo Zhou
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Correspondence to Yunkai Li or Bo Zhou.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Communicated by J. Li.

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Li, Y., Feng, J., Xue, S. et al. Formation mechanism for emitter composite-clogging in drip irrigation system. Irrig Sci 37, 169–181 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-018-0612-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-018-0612-x

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