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Field planning

Irrigation Layout Designer

Check a drip-irrigation block: lateral, submain and mainline losses, pressure at the farthest subunit and emitter flow variation, with a validated model.

  • Hydraulics
  • Scaled SVG
  • Local calculation
StableVersion 2026.10.1Validated 2026-10-10Hydraulics checked against Christiansen's F table, segment-by-segment friction summation (within 2%) and a Hazen–Williams hand calculation.
Guide

Field & Terrain

Orientation measured clockwise from true north. Slopes convert to head differences.

Headworks & Constraints

Pump pressure, filter/fertigation losses, and allowable variation determine available head.

Mainline

Runs along the field length. Material sets the Hazen–Williams C; a ring (two-end) feed halves the run and its flow.

Submains

Cross the field width. Spacing sets the number of submains and the lateral length (half the spacing on each side); a centreline mainline feeds them from the middle.

Drip laterals

Laterals follow the crop rows. Tape spacing is the row spacing; emitter data come from the tape's datasheet.

Layout Preview

Field drawn to scale with rotation; headworks shown at origin.

320 m × 140 m
Irrigation layout previewScaled field diagram showing the mainline, submains, drip laterals and headworks.Headworks1 px ≈ 0.38 m
Mainline
Submains
Drip laterals

Hydraulic summary

Layout
5 submains
every 64.0 m · 630 laterals
Lateral run
32.0 m
106 emitters · 254 L/h
Lateral headloss
0.17 m
inlet velocity 0.35 m/s
Submain headloss
1.12 m
inlet 1.40 m/s · 32.1 m³/h
Flow per shift
32.1 m³/h
1 submain(s) open · pump 130
Mainline headloss
0.34 m
velocity 0.44 m/s
Pressure at farthest submain
203 kPa
needed 110 kPa · margin 93
Pressure variation
13.6%
within a subunit
Emitter flow variation
7.1%
exponent x = 0.5
All screened parameters are within the configured limits. Continue with detailed hydraulic and zoning checks.

Tips

  • Keep pipe velocities at or below 1.5 m/s to limit water hammer and energy losses.
  • Keep pressure variation within a subunit (submain plus laterals) below about 20% for non-compensating emitters; this gives about 10% flow variation.
  • Shorter laterals (closer submains) cut lateral losses sharply: friction grows with roughly the 2.75th power of lateral length.
  • Use pressure-compensating emitters on slopes above about 0.5% or where pressure variation cannot be kept low.

Underlying formulas & references

Mainline and submains: Hazen–Williams, hf = 10.67 · L · Q1.852 / (C1.852 · d4.87). Laterals: Darcy–Weisbach with the Blasius friction factor f = 0.316 · Re−0.25. Pipes with N evenly spaced outlets carry Christiansen's factor F = 1/(m+1) + 1/(2N) + √(m−1)/(6N²). Subunit inlet pressure follows Keller & Karmeli, h = ha + 0.75 Δhf + 0.5 Δz, and emitter flow variation qvar = 1 − (1 − hvar)x.

Validated in the site's test suite: F factors against Christiansen's table and the F-factor losses against segment-by-segment summation (within 2%). References: Keller & Karmeli (1974), Trans. ASAE 17(4): 678–684; Christiansen (1942), Univ. California Agric. Exp. Stn. Bull. 670; ASABE EP405.

Cite this work​

If you use the Digital Plant Phenotyping Platform v25.0 or any of its tools in your research, please cite it.

DOI10.5281/zenodo.17544584
APA

LiangchaoDeng. (2025). smiler488/smiler488.github.io: Digital Plant Phenotyping Platform v25.0 (v25.0.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17544584

BibTeX
@software{Deng2025_DPPP_v25,
  author       = {Deng, Liangchao},
  title        = {Digital Plant Phenotyping Platform (v25.0)},
  year         = {2025},
  publisher    = {Zenodo},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.17544584},
  url          = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17544584},
  note         = {[Computer software]}
}

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