How to
design a plant
In the past, irrigation systems were designed with spreadsheets and schedules, methods that are now little used because they are very laborious and slow. Now the technicians mainly design with simplified software supplied by the manufacturers, with CAD programs or with dedicated professional tools such as IrriPro
Design software
Design time
Reliability results
Catalogues
Plant size
Export processed
Simplified
- Short
- Limited
- Only 1 produttore
- Small
CAD
- Medium
- Low
- Any
- Only drawings
IrriPro
- High
- Any
A valid design tool provides reliable results by performing rigorous hydraulic, physical, geometric calculations and, in the case of surveying, by accurately using detailed GIS information. In this way the technician will be able to know the quality of the irrigation at each point, the functioning of the system before installing it or improve an existing system by identifying the inefficiencies
Consider by design
Slope
Water speed in pipe
Continuous head losses
Localized head losses
Complete system calculation
Temperature
Hydraulic sizes(calculation)
IrriPro
- Variable point by point
- Calculated as unknown
- For any elements
Altri software
- Constant by type of pipe
- Set as constant value
- Calculated with equivalent discharge
- Calculation for single pipe / block
- Rough evaluation
Errore potenziale
- 40% uniformity value
- High
- 30% total head losses
- 50% total head losses
- 7-10% total pressures
More info
The strict criterion uses all the equations of hydraulics for the hydraulic calculation including the characteristic equation of the regulators. Simplified methods use only the motion equation by imposing the speed value
How to make the survey
The aspect that takes more time and has greater consequences in the construction of an irrigation system is the knowledge of the land where to build the system. Without knowing accurately quotas, slopes and extensions, a project cannot be developed.
More info
As an example, a 5% error in estimating the slope of a 75-meter-long side pipe can lead to an error in the evaluation of the flow rates, up to 25%.
IrriPro provides 3 ways to acquire the relief of a terrain, for immediate processing of the 3D model of the terrain:
Google Maps
Through a revolutionary technology that uses the Google Maps service, integrated within IrriPro, processing the terrain without moving from your PC and avoiding exhausting inspections. It is possible to define the precision of the topographic survey and acquire the satellite image
CAD files
With import of CAD files containing dimensional points and / contour lines: this data will be processed and acquired automatically to provide dimensions and slopes
Image files
By importing image files it is possible to define the scale and then draw contour lines and / or indicate dimensions so that the software processes the terrain for us
Are the data acquired from Google Maps reliable?
From our experience and from studies carried out by various Italian and foreign universities the answer is yes. The quality of the GIS data extracted from the Google Maps service is of equal or higher level than the technical cartography in 1: 5.000 scale and therefore sufficient for the design of irrigation systems. Here are the results of some studies:
IrriPro is probably the only software to consider the slopes in each section of the pipeline and the dimensions in each element.
How accurate are the elevation data provided by Google?
The accuracy of the altimetric data varies from 3 arc-seconds (1 point every 90 meters) to 1/3 arc-second (1 point for every 10 meters), up to 1/9 arc-seconds (1 point every 3 meters) in the U.S. and in many urban areas. The service, made available from Google Maps and Google Earth, comes from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) project (http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) (http://www.usgs.gov/) and others cartographic service. By performing surveys on some sample areas (according to studies in Italy and Nigeria) it's showed a average error about altimetric data of 2,5 meters.. The mapping with satellite maps is always relative to the Google Maps service.
Still doubts about the reliability of IrriPro?
Manufacturers, companies, universities and research centers have long used IrriPro for design services, experimental evaluations or as a teaching tool. Proof of this are the many agreements with Irriworks.
IrriPro has been the subject of several publications
