Numerical Simulation and Experimental Study on Internal Flow Characteristic in the Dynamic Fluidic Sprinkler
Alexander Fordjour, Xingye Zhu, Shouqi Yuan, Frank Agyen Dwomoh, Zakaria Issaka
Abstract
Highlights A detailed study of the relationship between the velocity distribution, length of tube and nozzle sizes. Rotation speed decreased approximately linearly as the length of the tube increased. Relative error was less than 4% for validated results indicating a perfect correlation between the values of numerical simulation, calculated, and experiment results. Abstract. A detailed study of the relationship between velocity distribution, length of tube and nozzle sizes was conducted using a dynamic fluidic sprinkler. Therefore, the objectives of this article were: (1) to study inner flow characteristics of dynamic fluidic sprinkler, (2) to compare numerical simulation and experimental results (3) to introduce an empirical equation of the variation trend of rotation speed for the newly designed sprinkler. A mathematical model for simulation of the inner flow distribution of the sprinkler was obtained by using computational fluid dynamics. The results were validated by numerical simulation and compared to the experimental results. The minimum average deviation between the calculated, simulation and experiment was 0.25%, whiles the maximum was 0.90%. It was found that the relative error was less than 4% results indicating a perfect correlation between the values of numerical simulation, calculated and experiment results. It was established that the rotation speed decreases approximately linearly as the length of the tube increases. The results revealed that the nozzle diameter, length of the tube, and the operating pressure had a significant influence on the rotation speed of the sprinkler. This study provides baseline information to improve water application efficiency for crop production in sprinkler irrigated fields. Keywords: Dynamic fluidic sprinkler, Inner flow, Nozzle, Numerical simulation, Water saving.