Water Front Advance Characteristics in Vertisols Under Surge Flow Irrigation

Abstract

A field experiment on surge irrigation and continuous mode was conducted to study the water front advance characteristics of vertisols and to standardize the surge parameters and furrow length for the design of a surge flow irrigation system. The experiment was conducted with 5,10 and 15min cycle timer, 1/4,1/2 and 3/4 cycle was under inflow stream sizes of 1.5 and 221/s.The study revealed that, there was an increase of 25% and 28.5% was observed in 1/2 and 3/4 cycle ratio with 211/s stream size in 15min cycle time compared to 67m the water front advance in continuous mode of water application. Similarly an increase of 16.2% and 25% was observed in 1/2 and 3/4 cycle ratio with 21 1/s stream size in 15min cycle compared to 67m of advance in continuous mode of water application. It was due to pre wetting and increased velocities in furrows. The study indicated that, a furrow length of 55 to 65 m is recommended for irrigation under combination of 1.51 1/s stream size, cycle time 15min and cycle ratio of 1/2 with 5-6 surge cycles. Similarly, a furrow length of 73 to 79m was recommended under 21 1/s with 4-6 surge cycles for achieving better water distribution uniformly in furrows