Modelling of a drip irrigation system operation for greenhouses rose cultivation using PDD in EPANET 2.2

Abstract

Abstract The present study focuses on the operation of a drip irrigation system for greenhouses rose cultivation in Adunatii-Copaceni, Giurgiu County, Romania. The numerical modelling of the irrigation system was performed in EPANET 2.2, using the pressure driven demand model. The pumping schedule fits the real operation, where five greenhouses are irrigated successively each morning, directly through pumping from a groundwater source. Fertigation is applied for each greenhouse every 5 days, in the evening, through pumping from a storage tank. Despite the hydraulic assumptions adopted to model the groundwater well and dripper lines, the computed results match the values of the outflow rates measured for the dripper lines of the real drip irrigation system. Simulations are useful to investigate, at no cost, different scenarios attached to the operation of the studied drip irrigation system.