ABSTRACT
NEW APPROACHES TO DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF LOW PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS
A. DOUIEB and R. BOUNOUA Institut Agronomique et Vete~rinaire Hassan II, Rabat, Morocco L. S. PEREIRA and P. L. SOUSA Department of Agricultural Engineering, Institute of Agronomy, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal N. LAMADDALENA CIHEAM, Ban Institute, Ban, Italy
Abstract Low pressure pipe distribution systems for surface irrigation provide for recognized environmental benefits at both off-and on-farm. However, expected benefits can only be attained when reliability, dependability and equity of systems are high enough to support appropriate conditions for water use at farm. An innovative methodology for design and analysis is proposed, which includes the generation of farm demand and flow regimes for the peak demand period, the optimization of pipe sizes using several flow regimes, and the performance analysis from simulations with several flow regimes. An application to one sector of the Sorraia irrigation system illustrates the method proposed. Keywords: Dependability, design, equity, flow regimes, generation of farm demand, low pressure irrigation systems, performance analysis, reliability.
