Evaluating effect of particles diameters on physical clogging of drip irrigation tapes

Tape drip irrigation is one of the relatively new methods which can be considered as an effective tool in improving irrigation efficiency as well as agricultural and horticultural crop production. The so-called physical clogging of emitters is the most important problem in tape drip irrigation system that causes decreasing of emission uniformity and increasing of operating costs. Despite appropriate filtration system, some fine particles with less than 0.1 mm in diameter (minimum diameter of the screen filter mesh) can cross through the filters, causing the emitter clogging. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of fine particle diameters on emitter clogging in drip irrigation tapes system. The result indicated that the effect of fine particle diameter on emitters clogging is statistically significant (at 1% level of significance). The results also indicated that by reducing the particle diameters, emitter clogging is increased. Such that the maximum clogging can occur by particles that have less than 0.037 mm diameter.