Irrigation and Reclamation Engineering Dept. University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, P.O. Box 4111, Karaj, Iran, 31587–77871.
During the last decade the hydraulic sensitivity approach has been considered as efficient and useful tool for flow behavior investigation in irrigation networks. The influence of flow depth regulators on the water distribution has been studied by this approach successfully. The hydraulic sensitivity approach is based on defining hydraulic sensitivity indicator for network components and studying their interaction on the desired flow distribution in an irrigation network. In this research a new definition of the hydraulic sensitivity was proposed based on which “effective hydraulic sensitivity indicator” was developed that overcomes the drawback of the traditional definition of the hydraulic sensitivity indicators. Using limited field data to effectively evaluate hydraulic behavior of an irrigation component, which is of great practical importance for network managers, is the main advantage of the proposed method. The proposed method was applied to the widely used baffle module distributors and the results were compared with that of the traditional sensitivity method.
