Abstract

The objective of this research was to study the technical and economical aspects to be considered for sprinkler selection. To accomplish this an analysis was performed of different factors such as rate of water application, available time for irrigation, wind velocity, distribution pattern and pressure. In addition, the price of the sprinklers and the energy and operational cost were considered. The results show that the distribution pattern is the most important factor that affects the fixed costs, basically due to the number of sprinklers. The variable cost is mainly affected by the discharge and working pressure of the sprinklers. The wind factor affects the number of sprinklers per unit area and the total discharge. The time available for irrigation has an important effect upon the required discharge and seasonal time of operation, which affects the total costs.