EFFECT OF WATER QUALITY AND LATERALS FLUSHING FREQUENCY ON EMITTERS PERFORMANCE

The effect of two different water qualities (groundwater (GW) and treated sewage effluent (TSE)) and four laterals flushing frequency treatments (non flushing (NF), monthly flushing (MF), fortnightly flushing (FF) and a weekly flushing (WF)) on emitters performance, were studied for total operational time, 1440 h. The emitters  performance were  evaluated, using the reduction of emitter discharge (qr), the relative emitter discharge (R) , the coefficient of variation of emitter discharge (CV), the distribution uniformity (DU) and Christiansen uniformity coefficient (CU). Results indicated that all indices were affected by water quality, laterals flushing frequency and operational time. The values of qr and CV for the TSE treatments were greater than those for the GW treatments. The values of R, DU and CU for the TSE treatments were lower than those for the GW treatments. The qr and CV increased and the R, DU and CU decreased as operational time increasing for the GW and TSE treatments. For both GW and TSE treatments, the qr and the CV were greater, and the R, DU and CU were smaller of  WF treatment than those for another treatments. Laterals flushing frequency efficiently alleviate emitter clogging and improved the emitters performance. In a conclusion, WF treatment showed a suitable emitters performance than another treatments of laterals flushing.