Under the trickle irrigation method, it is important to discuss the basic problems of the shape and volume of conic wetting zones and the soil moisture content distribution within the conic wetting zones, which affect the nozzle spacing, water application efficiency and salt accumulation.In this paper, these basic problems were discussed with the numerical method and experiments under the conditions of two-dimensional infiltration into dune sand.
1) To solve the nonlinear diffusion-type water flow equation in unsaturated soil,
K-θ curve, pF-θ curve,
D-θ curve, etc., which were measured by the laboratory and field experiments using dune sand, were required for the numerical calculation.
2) The soil moisture content distributions measured by using the gamma-ray attenuation soil moisture detection apparatus, under such a two-dimensional model as in the case of the calculations, comparatively agreed with those obtained by the numerical method.
3) The iso-soil moisture content curves obtained by the numerical method under the initial conditions of the trickle discharge
q=0.5cm
3/cm min and 0.8cm
3/cm min, and θ
n=0.005-0.008cm
3/cm
3 (air dried dune sand), were discussed until the process, which the wetting fronts of the conic wetting zone on
z axis distributed to the main root zone (25/30cm of depth from sand surface).
4) Within the conic wetting zone, the soil moisture contents θ close to the line source were 0.15-0.17cm
3/cm
3, and wetting area of θ=0.10-0.15cm
3/cm
3 took the largest of the total conic wetting zone. Furthermore, the iso-soil moisture content curves distributed larger for
z coordinate (vertical) than for
x one (horizontal), especially, the higher iso-soil moisture content curves approached gradually to the steady state close to the sand surface.
5) In the case of conditions that
K showed approximately 10 percent smaller of those of dune sand, the soil moisture contents close to the line source were 0.26-0.28cm
3/cm
3 and the iso-soil moisture content curves distributed smaller than those of dune sand, however, θ=0.15cm
3/cm
3 of iso-soil moisture content curve distributed larger close to soil surface than those of dune sand, which approached to the steady state.
6) The iso-soil moisture content curves distributed larger with the increase of the initial soil moisture contents, especially those became larger for the depth direction with the increase of the nozzle flow rate in dune sand.
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