Hydraulic Flow Behaviour through an In-line Emitter Labyrinth using CFD Techniques

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques have been used for the design and improvement of many hydraulic devices over the past several years. The use of CFD in microirrigation emitters is new but it could be a powerful tool for emitter manufacturers. A study of the flow behaviour through an in-line emitter labyrinth has been carried out and is present by the authors. A laminar flow condition was assumed inside the emitter due to a low Reynolds number (lower than 1500 in all cases). The influence of the grid was taken into account using a finer mesh, but its use shows that there was no influence on the final results. The mathematical model developed for this paper shows a good correlation with the empirical results of the emitter testing carried out in the laboratory. These results show that the mathematical model has a very good agreement with the experimental data and it could be used for improving the design of microirrigation emitters through changes of the inside geometry of the emitters.