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Streamline pattern and salt leaching through progressive flooding between subsurface drains
Author(s) -
Mirjat Muhammad Saffar,
Rose Derek A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
irrigation and drainage
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.421
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1531-0361
pISSN - 1531-0353
DOI - 10.1002/ird.398
Subject(s) - flooding (psychology) , streamlines, streaklines, and pathlines , leaching (pedology) , hydrology (agriculture) , environmental science , environmental engineering , water quality , geology , geotechnical engineering , soil science , engineering , soil water , psychology , ecology , biology , psychotherapist , aerospace engineering
This paper examines an efficient method of removing salts through progressive flooding of surface strips between subsurface drains. The method has been tested in the laboratory using a sand tank model experiment. The work extends earlier theoretical investigations by Youngs and Leeds‐Harrison (2000) which suggest that more uniform leaching with less water can be obtained by constraining the infiltrating area with the use of bunds, initially flooding only the region midway between the drains and then progressively increasing the flooded area towards the drains until the whole area between the drains is flooded. Streamlines were traced to determine flow pattern and solute movement under complete and partial flooding. The tracing results suggest that partial flooding is more effective than complete flooding as the streamlines move faster and require less time to carry the salt towards the drain. The results have been further supported by the pore volumes of solute and salt loads leached under partial and complete flooding. The quarter flooding situation was extremely efficient followed by half and three‐quarter situations where solute leaching towards drains was higher than complete flooding. Results show that 59% superfluous good quality water is required to desalinise the area midway between drains with complete flooding, as compared to quarter area of flooding. Similarly, half and three‐quarter flooding situations require 21 and 37% additional good quality water, respectively, to leach the same amount of salts from the area midway between drains. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.