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Understanding physical clogging in drip irrigation: in situ, in-lab and

numerical approaches

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DOI: 10.1007/s00271-016-0506-8

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Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342
DOI 10.1007/s00271-016-0506-8

REVIEW

Understanding physical clogging in drip irrigation: in situ, in‑lab

and numerical approaches
Salim Bounoua1 · Séverine Tomas1 · Jérôme Labille2 · Bruno Molle3 ·
Jacques Granier3 · Pierre Haldenwang4 · Surani Nuur Izzati1 

Received: 27 November 2015 / Accepted: 19 April 2016 / Published online: 30 April 2016
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Abstract  Dripper clogging is a major drawback of micro-
irrigation systems that must be addressed to improve their
efficiency and durability. Particle-induced clogging is first
studied in situ. The experiments consist in observing in real
conditions the behavior of a series of drippers fitted on an
agricultural plot in the south of France. The plot is supplied
from a canal with Durance River water. The latter is loaded
with sediments that gradually clog drippers and filters.
Water analysis reveal that physicochemical clogging pre-
vails over biological clogging. This characterization helps
in setting in-lab experiment protocol. Indeed, besides field
observation of clogging, laboratory analyses of both the
irrigation water and the clogging material are performed
with reactive and inert clay: smectite and an illite–calcite
mix. A surprising tendency is observed: Salt concentration
in smectite seeded water decreases the clogging, whereas
it increases agglomerate size. Computational fluid dynamic
simulations are carried out to investigate the impact of par-
ticles on flow behavior. Results demonstrate that clay parti-
cles interacting with the flow govern the complex structure
Communicated by N. Lazarovitch.
* Séverine Tomas
severine.tomas@irstea.fr
1 ena can occur in surface as well as underground waters,
UMR G‑EAU, IRSTEA Montpellier, 361 rue Jean‑François
Breton, BP 5095, 34196 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
2 sometimes sulfate precipitates (Hills et al. 1989; Levy et al.
CEREGE UMR 6635, CNRS, Aix-Marseille Universit,
13545 Aix‑en‑Provence, France
3 mineral particles, such as clay and silt. These particles are
UMR G‑EAU, IRSTEA Montpellier, 361 rue Jean‑François
Breton, BP 5095, 34196 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
4 clog the emitters because of aggregation downstream from
FRE 2405 du CNRS, IMT/La Jetée/L3M, Modélisation et
simulation numérique en mécanique, 38, avenue Joliot Curie,
13451 Marseille Cedex 20, France
of the fluid velocity fields inside the dripper labyrinth
channel.
Introduction
In microirrigation, clogging of drippers is one of the main
problems which seriously affects water distribution uni-
formity at plot scale (Pitts et al. 1990) as well as irrigation
system durability. Clogging can be of biological, chemi-
cal or physical origin and is often a combination of two or
more of these factors (Gilbert et al. 1981; Adin and Sacks
1991). Biological clogging is caused by the organic mat-
ter transported in waters, sometime including the devel-
opment of algae, bacteria or fungi. Algae growth requires
light, which means they generally develop at dripper out-
let. Bacteria proliferation can trap some solutes such as
calcium bicarbonates or mineral particles in suspension
in irrigation water (Gilbert et al. 1981). In certain condi-
tions, aquatic organisms may proliferate throughout the
irrigation network (Nakayama and Bucks 1991; Ravina
et al. 1992). Clogging often stems from the association of
different factors such as irrigation water quality or more
specifically its physicochemical composition. Clogging
may also be of chemical origin if solutes precipitate due
to changes in physicochemical conditions. Such phenom-
and most are observed with calcium carbonates, iron and
2011). Finally, physical clogging is often due to suspended
generally too small to be retained by the filter, but they can
the filtration system. This agglomeration favors the deposit
process and results in clogging (Pitts et al. 1990).

13

328
In addition, the different impacts that particles can
have on flow depend on various factors such as particle
characteristics, pipe geometry, hydrodynamics and turbu-
lence properties to name but a few. Adding particles can
result in different phenomena depending on their charac-
teristics. Fluid turbulence intensity is reduced by small
particles while it increases for large particles (Kulick
et al. 1994). They also observe in keeping with the
simulation of Vreman (2007) that turbulence intensities
decrease when the mass load ratio increases. Yuan and
Michaenidies (1992) study turbulence intensity modifica-
tions due to particles in the pipe flow. They conclude that
turbulence reduction is caused by energy dissipation due
to particle acceleration, while turbulence augmentation is
the result of flow disturbance due to particle motion and
particle wakes.
The main objective of our research is to better under-
stand drivers of the physical clogging phenomena. This
work focuses on particle agglomeration and its impact on
drippers operation. Flow rate variations caused by modifi-
cations in velocity and turbulence intensities are analyzed
through in-field and lab experiments coupled with a numer-
ical approach. Such a combination of scales constitutes an
original work to approach fluid–particles interactions in
clogging process. From in situ observations, we highlight
the correlation between agglomeration and clogging for
raw water naturally loaded with clay. In-lab experiments
are performed to characterize clay agglomeration behav-
ior and subsequently its impact on dripper functioning for
both inert and reactive clays. We attempt to model certain
tricky observations such as flow rate modifications due to
suspended particles.
Materials and methods
The dripper
To analyze the causes of clogging and the processes
involved, we use long-path drippers. This dripper model is
the most commonly used worldwide (several billion units
sold per year) due to its great durability and to the fact that
its design patent entered the public domain many years
ago. The specific samples we use are commercialized under
John Deere Water brand. It is inserted within 16-mm-diam-
eter polyethylene pipes with a spacing of 0.3 m. The nomi-
nal operating pressure is 100 kPa resulting in a discharge
of 2 l h−1. The manufacturing variation coefficient (CVm)
is 3.17 %. The emitter flow rate increases with static pres-
sure in a lateral pipe according to an exponential relation
(Karmeli 1977):
q = KPx (1)
13
Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342
where q is the flow rate of emitter, K is the constant of pro-
portionality that depends of used units, P is the pressure
head and x is the emitter discharge exponent that character-
izes each emitter. The value of this exponent depends on
the conception of the emitter. For this study, we determine
K = 2.12 and x = 0.57.
In‑field experiments
The experimental setup is installed on a potato plot in
southeast France (Vaucluse, Pertuis) irrigated with water
from the river Durance, which flows from the Alps. It is
comprised of four drippers lines placed on the ground sur-
face which are operated one hour per day from five to six
pm. Two lines are supplied with raw water and the two
others with filtered water. Filtration is performed using
a series of three self-cleaning disk Amiad filters with a
80 µm aperture size. Over the two months (June and July)
of irrigation, water samples are regularly taken from five
drippers on each line, positioned at 10, 20, 50, 80, 90 m
(line length 100 m) from the inlet. One more emitter is
analyzed on raw water at 95 m. Collection time is 120 s.
These measurements give the spatiotemporal changes in
discharge, which is directly linked with the accumulation
of clogging material in the flow path. Distribution uni-
formity is calculated using the DUlq (lower-quartile distri-
bution uniformity) coefficient corresponding to the ratio of
the average discharge of the n/4 lower values (average low
quarter qmin ) to the average discharge of all (n) measure-
ments (q) ; n equals 10 (respectively 12) for filtered water
(raw water).
qmin
DUlq = 100 (2)
q
For uniform distribution, i.e., good quality irrigation, DUlq
should not be lower than 85 %. Pilot pressure is main-
tained around 60 kPa. Pressure is recorded for each water
sampling thanks to a needle pressure gauge.
The suspended particles in raw and filtered irrigation
waters are characterized using a laser sizer described in
Sect. 2.3. Their mineralogy is determined by X-ray diffrac-
tion on three water samples. More details of the setup can
be found in Bounoua (2010).
In‑lab experiments
For a better understanding of the clay aggregation impact
on dripper behavior, two kinds of clay suspensions are
used:
• a reactive smectite, which tends to aggregate depending
the water physicochemical balance (bentonite ABSO-
CLAY NAW, treated at CMMP Saint-Quentin, 02,
Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342 329
Fig. 1  Laser sizer setup
France). It is composed of natural sodium montmoril-
lonite extracted at Wyoming (USA);
• an illite mixed with calcite (Arvel Society based at
Saint-Paulien, 43, France), expected to be less active
than the smectite with regard to the aggregation phe-
nomenon.
• Lab experiments are performed using two setups. One
is dedicated to the characterization of clay aggregation
mechanism. The other is built in order to test the impact
of agglomeration on dripper clogging.
Clay aggregation setup
It comprises a Taylor–Couette reactor coupled with a laser
sizer (Mastersizer S, Malvern Instruments, UK). This
technique is based on light diffraction according to the
Fraunhofer theory. Our experimental facility is a closed
loop circuit (Fig. 1) in which the suspension is pumped
from the Taylor–Couette reactor (1 l) to the measurement
cell and then driven back to the reactor. The pump flow
is 5 × 10−4 l s−1. The container houses a Taylor–Couette
reactor which controls shear stress. The aggregate median
size (D50) is measured as a time function at the Taylor–
Couette reactor outlet. The respective effects of the ionic
strength and shear stress are investigated. Shear stress can
cause agglomeration of the particles by increasing the
probability of shocks. Conversely, it can also cause aggre-
gate fragmentation when it increases. These parameters
govern the maximum size of the flocs that can be attained.
These factors are varied adding NaCl concentrations (0,
10−3, 10−2 and 10−1 M) and strain rate values of 20, 60
and 210 s−1. The clay concentration is fixed at 200 mg l−1
through all the experiments. Size measurement frequency
is 0.33 Hz and lasts for 36 min or less if no size evolution
is detected.
Clogging setup at pilot scale
This second experiment is operated to understand the
phenomena of clay-particle-induced clogging under con-
trolled conditions (size and type of particles, ionic charge
and temperature). We aim to identify the various processes
involved, in particular the effect of the ionic strength and
nature of particles (illite–calcite vs. smectite) on aggrega-
tion. The pilot comprises four lines each equipped with
10 drippers. These lines are fed from a 50-l reservoir con-
nected to two pumps: one for feeding the dripper units and
the other for stirring the clay solution (200 mg l−1). The
water used to prepare the clay suspension is previously
filtered at 1 µm. This filter is constituted of polypropylene
microfibers (Spun 1 µm Big Blue) downstream of a 25-µm
filtration (wound sediment cartridge Big Blue), to avoid
saturation. The tank is first filled with 49 l of filtered water
and then the clay, previously put in suspension into 1 l fil-
tered water, is added in the tank. A cooler is immersed in
each of the four tanks to maintain the temperature between
20 and 23 ◦ C. Each tank is operated using different salt
concentrations (0, 10−3 and 10−2 M of NaCl). The pressure
is maintained at 100 kPa. After 8 h, the flow rates are meas-
ured using a beaker placed under the drip outlet for five
minutes. This measurement is repeated daily through 40
days of experiment. The initial value of DUlq is calculated
at the very beginning of the irrigation season and reveals to
be between 96 and 97 %, which is consistent with the value
of CVm measured in laboratory.
Numerical approach
The aim of this part of the study is to deepen the analy-
sis of the interaction between fluid and particles in order to
characterize the impact of size, particle concentration and
13

330 Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342

Fig.  2  a Dripper with close-up of the labyrinth. This dripper is then inserted within 16-mm-diameter polyethylene pipe. b Geometry of the laby-
rinth

agglomeration process on velocity and turbulence fields. Multiphase flow model

The study is performed using commercial computational
fluid dynamics software where the models studied are The two-phase flow modeling relies on an Eulerian descrip-
implemented: ANSYS/Fluent V15.0.7. tion. The continuous and dispersed phases are water and
clay, respectively. The Eulerian model solves the contin-
Labyrinth geometry uum and the momentum equations of every phase which is
defined by their volume fraction. The volume of phase q, Vq
A portion of the repeated flow path of the dripper laby- is defined as:
rinth is designed and built numerically. It is constituted of a 
n
1-mm-width inlet, six baffles and a 1-mm-width outlet. The Vq = φq dV with Σq=1 φq = 1, (3)
distance between two baffles is 3 mm, while the minimum V

section size of the flow path is 1 mm (Fig. 2). This two- where φq is the volume fraction of phase q.
dimensional geometry is meshed by triangles. The mesh Continuum equation:
size is progressively refined until the results are no more
∂
dependent to the number of meshes. The minimum mesh φq ρq + ∇ · φq ρq − → n
    
vq = Σp=1 ṁpq ṁqp + Sq , (4)
size is about 3.8 µm. ∂t
where −
→v is the velocity of phase q, ṁ characterizes mass
q pq
Boundary conditions and hypothesis transfer phase p to phase q, and ṁqp the contrary. In this
study, in a first approximation, the source term Sq is sup-
Pressure values at inlet and outlet are set to obtain a pres- posed to be zero.
sure gradient of 5 kPa between these two sections; this gra- Momentum equation (Navier–Stokes):
dient is equivalent to the pressure drop recorded at nominal
pressure (100 kPa) of the complete dripper labyrinth. The ∂
φq ρq −
→
vq + ∇ · φq ρq −→
vq −
→
vq = −φq ∇p + ∇ · τq + φq ρq −
→
  
g
flow is considered two-dimensional, steady and the fluid ∂t −→  −
→ −−−→ −−−→
incompressible, and its temperature is maintained at 20 ◦ C . n
+ Σp=1 Rpq + ṁpq −
v→ −→
pq − ṁqp vqp + Fq + Flift,q + Fvm,q
The fluid used is water with a density ρf = 981 kg m−3 . (5)
Clay particles (ρp = 2800 kg m−3) are then injected. The
−
→
flow rate is 1 l h−1 which corresponds to a Reynolds number where τq is the shear rate of phase q, Fq is the external
−−→ −−→
(Re) of 770. Even if this value is below the transition lami- force, Flift,q is the lift force, Fvm,q is the added mass force,
−→
nar–turbulent flow for a Poiseuille flow, we assume a turbu- Rpq is interaction force between phases and p is the pres-
lent mode as the passage sections are close to large micro- sure for all phases.
channels (Hetsroni et al. 2005; Li and Olsen 2006). For this k − ǫ transport equations:
type of flow some experiments give a laminar–turbulent  
∂  − → µt,m
transition value which is lower than the conventional Poi-

(ρm k) + ∇ · ρm vm k = ∇ · ∇k + Gk,m − ρm ǫ,
∂t σk
seuille flow value (Wu and Little 1983; Pfund et al. 2000), (6)
while others show no displacement of this transition (Qu
and Mudawar 2002; Sharp and Adrian 2004). We select the
 
∂ µt,m ǫ
(ρm ǫ) + ∇. ρm −
 →  
vm ǫ = ∇. ∇ǫ + C1ǫ Gk,m − C2ǫ ρm ǫ ,
k − ǫ model as did many CFD studies on the flow in dripper ∂t σǫ k
labyrinths (Dazhuang et al. 2007; Wei et al. 2012). (7)

13
Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342 331

Table 1  Simulated cases
Case Flow type dp inlet (μm) Mass load m (–) Inlet particle volume Particle–particle interaction
fraction φp (–)

L0a Without particles – – – –

L5b Monodispersed 5 1.7 × 10−4 6 × 10−5 –
L20b Monodispersed 20 1.7 × 10−4 6 × 10−5 –
L60b Monodispersed 60 1.7 × 10−4 6 × 10−5 –
L20c Monodispersed 20 1.09 × 10−1 6 × 10−2 –
Lpoly Polydispersed 1–80 1.7 × 10−4 6 × 10−5 –
Lpoly-b Polydispersed 5 1.7 × 10−4 6 × 10−5 Aggregation and breakage

where ρm and − →
vm are the density and velocity of the mix-
ture, respectively. The turbulent viscosity µt,m is calculated
using the equation:
k2
µt,m = ρm Cµ , (8)
ǫ second week measurements on the filtered lines, the first
and the production of turbulent kinetic energy Gk,m is cal-
culated using the equation:
 
Gk,m = µt,m ∇ − →
vm + (−
→
vm )T : ∇ −
→
vm , (9)
By default, the constants are: C1ǫ = 1.44; C2ǫ = 1.92;
Cµ = 0.09; σk = 1 and σǫ = 1.3.
Numerical tests
To better understand the impact of particles in the flow,
different simulations are carried out by varying different
parameters. In particular, we use both monodispersed and
polydispersed particles. Table 1 summarizes all the cases
studied. For the polydispersed cases, 20 diameter classes
from 1 to 80 µm are injected at the inlet, with 3 × 10−6
volume fractions for each one. In the Lpoly-b case, aggre-
gation and breakage are simulated using the Luo model
(Luo 1993).
Results and discussion
Field characterization of physical clogging
These in situ experiments try to link suspended load with
dripper flow rate variations.
Analysis of discharge
Figure  3 shows variations in the discharge of the drippers
supplied with raw and filtered waters. At the very begin-
ning on the four lines of the experiment, there is a variation
of ±5 % with regard to the nominal discharge. This vari-
ation is partially due to the manufacturing quality of the
product (CVm = 3.17 %) but also possibly to fluctuations
in pressure in the network. Indeed, 5 kPa are recorded
which imply 3.7 % discharge variation from Eq. 1. The
two drippers show a lower discharge than others that is
not observed during further measurements. This temporary
decrease in discharge may also be related to the transfer of
particles trapped in the labyrinth which may take time to
reach the dripper’s outlet. After four weeks of daily appli-
cation of raw water (Fig. 3), the discharge of all drippers
decreases, whereas with filtered water, only a few drippers
have lower discharge. For raw waters, a 5 % decrease in
average discharge occurs from the second week (Fig. 3).
During the fourth week, the decrease is more marked, due
to heavy storms during this period in the mountains where
water is coming from. After seven weeks, we observe a
19 % decrease in the average discharge of operating drip-
pers (clogged dripper is not taken into consideration) with
raw water, while a 6 % decrease only is observed with fil-
tered water. The 80-µm filtration is thus shown to signifi-
cantly improve discharge stability, while the unfiltered
water induces progressive clogging. Only two drippers
supplied with raw water among the 12 analyzed are totally
clogged from the seventh week. They are situated at 95 m ,
i.e., close to the end of the line. Thus, when the system is
turned on, the high initial velocity of water may flush some
particles downstream. This results in a higher exposure of
terminal drippers to particle deposit. Indeed, these por-
tions of irrigation blocks are characterized by lower water
velocity which favor particle settling (Capra and Scicolone
1998). Moreover, in the case of filtered water, the distri-
bution uniformity remains high (DUlq > 94 %, Table 2)
throughout the whole duration of the experiment despite
the decrease in discharge (Fig. 3). We can thus suspect
that the initial ±5 % DUlq is mainly due to the manufac-
turing quality (CVm = 3.17 %), pressure variation (3.7 %)
and pressure drop along the lateral (headloss), but not to

13

332 Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342

Fig. 3  Time evolution of
drippers discharge according
to their position (distance from
inlet) as a function of time with
2 water qualities (filtered water
f, raw water r). Error bars show
the variability of the measure-
ments obtained

Table 2  Time evolution of DUlq with filtered and raw water

1 June (%) 11 June (%) 19 June (%) 28 June (%) 5 July (%) 11 July (%) 19 July (%)

Filtered water 96 94 96 96 96 95 98
Raw water 97 95 97 93 69 67 69

clogging. It suggests that the uniformity coefficient alone
is not sufficient to reveal clogging phenomena if these are
homogeneous. According to Chossat (1995), in this case it
would not be necessary to undertake maintenance of the
system. Consequently, the uniformity coefficient needs to
be associated with the calculation of deviations of the dis-
charge from initial value (Ec) as expressed in Eq. 10 and
presented in Fig. 4:
q − qn
Ec = 100
qn
where q is measured discharge (l/h) and qn is the initial
discharge.
Figure 3 and Table 2 highlight the following:
• Drippers supplied with raw water clog from the begin-
ning of the observations (4 % after two weeks). The
same trend is observed on lines irrigated with filtered
waters, but a 4 % decrease only is observed six weeks
after the drippers have been operating. It means that
despite filtration effectiveness, particles are passing that
could settle inside the drippers path.
• With raw water, we observe a sharp drop in discharge
and uniformity [DUlq = (69 − 67) %] after a stormy
(10) period that occurs during the fourth week. It results in
the complete clogging of two drippers that are disre-
garded in the following periods. This sudden discharge
drop is not observed in filtered water, although a slight
and uniform decrease occurs.

13
Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342 333
Fig. 4  Variations in average discharge at the outlet of operating drip-
pers
• These observations make it necessary to investigate the
characteristics of the clogging material.
Particle size analysis
Particle size is measured in samples of raw and filtered
water taken from the upstream and the downstream of dis-
tribution laterals using two draining pipes inserted in the line
(Fig. 5). Those draining pipes are open only when sampling
is required. At the first outlet (upstream), we observe a peak
in the population of particles suspended in filtered water cen-
tered at 4 µm. In raw water, the distribution curve is bimodal
with peaks at 5 and 30 µm. For both types of water, we
observe an increase in particle diameter between the upstream
and downstream samples. The peaks are both located at
80 µm in filtered and raw water, respectively, but the outlier
Fig. 5  Particle size distributions in filtered (a) and raw (b) water between the beginning and the end of the lateral (sample collected at dripper’s
outlet)
diameters reach 500 µm or even more in raw water. Particles
may have benefited from favorable hydrodynamic and chemi-
cal conditions for aggregation resulting in the emergence of
a new population of particle size greater than the filter mesh
size (80 µm). Our hypothesis is that the new population with
larger size is formed during the no-irrigation phase, when the
fine suspended materials and/or the solutes precipitating with
the increasing temperature can deposit inside the pipe. During
the irrigation phase, the re-suspension induced by the flow is
transported through the lateral in downstream samples. This
phenomenon is logically more pronounced with raw water,
where the amount suspended particulate matter is higher.
These size distribution measurements are only qualitative as
they do not reflect the concentrations of particles involved.
Raw water concentration is higher than filtered water ones.
Characterization of the mineralogy of suspended particles
Some raw water is sampled and analyzed with X-ray dif-
fraction so as to characterize the mineralogy of its sus-
pended particulate matter. The three measurements are in
close agreement. The diffractogram presented corresponds
to one sample (Fig. 6). It reveals a relative heterogeneity
with the dominating presence of quartz and calcite accom-
panied by phyllosilicate such as micas, chlorite and illite.
Infrared spectroscopy is also used to characterize the chem-
ical composition of the suspended particulate matter. It con-
firms the major presence of silicates and alumino-silicates
and does enable to detect any additional material such as
natural organic matter. Such dominance of inorganic mate-
rial is expected in river water. Thus, we assume that in our
context, physicochemical clogging prevails over biological
clogging. This hypothesis is consistent with particle size
measurements (Fig. 5) given that clay is considered respon-
sible for most coagulation phenomena (Labille et al. 2003).
13

334
Fig. 6  X-ray diffractogram of
the suspended particles occur-
ring in the raw water
Agglomeration process and physical clogging
To better understand how the agglomeration process
impacts the clogging mechanism, experiments in con-
trolled laboratory conditions are performed with solutions
(200 mg l−1 or 0.710−5 mass load) of reactive (smectite)
and inert (illite–calcite) clays. The main objective is to
determine how salt concentration and strain rate influence
the above.
Characterization of the aggregation process
In this section, only smectite size variations are detailed.
The illite–calcite suspension does not agglomerate (data
not shown) but remains totally dispersed at the 5 µm ele-
mentary size whatever the physicochemical conditions
tested, even at the highest salt concentration (Bounoua
2010). For smectite suspensions, the aggregation kinet-
ics are plotted in Fig. 7 for the three strain rates and three
salt concentrations tested. In the absence of salt, no aggre-
gation is measured at any strain rate, and the D50 remains
5 µm. It appears that 10−3 M NaCl concentration is just
sufficient to induce slow aggregation. Indeed, the average
size at 30 min increases to 8 µm for the three strain rate
values tested. At 10−2 M NaCl, the aggregation kinetics
increases with the strain rate. This behavior is a character-
istic of the reaction-limited aggregation (RLA) process for
which only a certain fraction of the total collisions leads
to aggregation. In this case, the steady-state aggregate
size, between 10 and 20 µm, is not correlated with the
strain rate intensity. However, the greater the strain rate,
the sooner steady state is reached, certainly due to higher
13
Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342
collision frequency. At 10−1 M NaCl, the fastest aggrega-
tion kinetics are measured, moreover increasing with strain
rate value. This corresponds to the typical diffusion-limited
aggregation (DLA) process, i.e., when each interparticle
collision leads to aggregation. The largest aggregates result
from this condition, with average size decreasing as strain
rate increases (40, 30 and 20 µm measured for 20, 60 and
210 s−1, respectively). In this case, strain rate does not only
favor aggregation following particle collision, it also causes
the aggregate fragmentation or erosion when the internal
aggregate tensile strength becomes insufficient with regard
to the size. The steady state obtained thus results from the
quasi-equilibrium between the aggregation forces and the
fragmentation forces. The balance is moved to the aggre-
gation side when the salt concentration, i.e., interparticle
attraction, increases. It is moved to the opposite fragmenta-
tion side when the strain rate increases. Stabilized aggre-
gate sizes are plotted in Fig. 8 for all salt concentrations. As
already observed, when the strain rate increases, smectite
tends to slightly aggregate at 10−3 M NaCl or to break up at
10−1 M NaCl, whereas the particles remain dispersed when
salt is absent. At 10−2 M NaCl, size decrease is observed
subsequent to slight increase. Despite opposite tendencies,
i.e., aggregation or fragmentation, it appears that an asymp-
totical size could be reached beyond 1000 s−1 strain rate
values. Indeed, log-linear regressions fit the median size
variation for 10−3 and 10−1 M NaCl:
10−3 M NaCl
1.63 ln(G) + 0.28
D50 = (11)
−6.11 ln(G) + 59.23 10−1 M NaCl
The correlation coefficients are 0.89 and 0.82 for 10−3 and
10−1 M NaCl, respectively. At an estimated dripper strain
Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342 335
Fig. 7  Impact of salt concentration (light gray 10−3 M NaCl, gray
10−2 M NaCl, black 10−1 M NaCl) on time evolution of D50 for
strain rate values of 20 s−1 (a), 60 s−1 (b) and 210 s−1 (c), respectively
rate of approximately 3000 s−1 (3.1), this equation predicts
16 and 12 µm median smectite aggregate size for 10−3 and
10−1 M NaCl, respectively. However, without experiments
at such high strain rates (for this Taylor–Couette reactor,
Fig. 8  Stabilized smectite sizes as a function of strain rate for several
salt concentrations
the maximum strain rate is 250 s−1), we cannot assert that
huge strain rates would not break the aggregate and thus
decrease the asymptotical D50 values.
Impact of clay and salt concentration on dripper clogging
For eight hours operating time per day, Fig. 9 represents the
evolution over time of the ratio between the nominal drip-
per flow rate, without clay particles, and with the illite–cal-
cite solution. The mean flow rate increases by some 5 %
when illite–calcite particles are added. We suppose that this
increase is related to the interaction between the particles
and small-scale turbulence which decreases the turbulent
kinetic energy. The resulting flow laminarization tends to
increase the mean velocity in the labyrinth. During the test,
there are small flow fluctuations, but the flow rate remains
higher than the nominal. The decreases are all reversible
and may therefore be related to the evacuation of particles
at system turn on. For eight hours operating time per day,
Fig.  10 represents the time evolution of the ratio between
the dripper nominal flow rate, without clay particles, and
the three smectite suspensions at varying salt concentra-
tion (0, 10−3 and 10−2 M NaCl). Globally, the mean flow
rates progressively decrease over the entire test. Nonethe-
less, intermittent increases are observable due to unclog-
ging phenomena occurring at system turn on. For each of
the above case, we note the following:
• without salt, flow rate decrease reaches 60 % after 40
days. Clogged dripper observation (Fig. 11) reveals that
the clogging material is a sort of gel containing clay
particles. Gel formation can be related to functioning
intermittence: During the stop phase, water leaks out
and smectite concentration increases beyond the solid–
gel transition phase (Abend and Lagaly 2000).
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336 Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342

Fig. 9  Time evolution,
8 h day−1 functioning, of the
ratio between the nominal flow
rate, without clay particles, and
the illite–calcite solution one

Fig. 10  Time evolution,
8 h day−1 functioning, of the
ratio between the nominal flow
rate, without clay particles, and
the three smectite solution salt
concentrations

• with 10−3 M NaCl, it appears that the presence of salt
generates a lower flow rate decrease in comparison with
the clear water case over the first 30 days of experiment.
Then, a fast flow rate decrease is observed reaching
almost a nil value after 40 days of operation. As for the
previous concentration, clogged dripper observations
(Fig. 11) reveal that the clogging material is a sort of gel
containing clay particles.
• with 10−2 M NaCl, as for 10−3 M NaCl, flow rate
decreases by up to 30 % at the beginning of the experi-
ment. This decrease can be linked whether to direct
particle interaction with flow, which is numerically
studied in 3.3, or to slight clogging due to agglomer-
ates which are not yet sedimented in the tank. There is
a slight increase (17 %) on the fortieth days due to drip-
per unclogging. Clogged dripper observations (Fig. 11)

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Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342 337

Fig. 11  Clogged dripper
labyrinth photograph after 40
days of 8 h day−1 operation for
the three smectite solution salt
concentrations

Fig. 12  Streamlines colored
by water velocity for a flow
without particles (case L0a of
Table 1)

reveal biofilm presence. In this particular case, no mineral
gel is observed. With this high salt concentration, smec-
tite has already aggregated in the feeding tank. Thus, its
transfer, through the supply line and then the dripper, is
different from the previous salt concentration where clay
particles are dispersed. At 10−2 M NaCl, it is highly prob-
able that aggregate sedimentation prevents the smectite
from circulating through the irrigation system.
• The clogging mechanism seems to be governed by clay
gel presence. Moreover, one unexpected phenomena is
observed: When salt concentration increases, the clog-
ging mechanism appears to be reduced. This effect is
already observed with clay gel cake filtration due to par-
ticles deposition on upstream membrane surface. In this
case, step increase in ionic strength leads to increase in
cake hydraulic conductivity, certainly due to the salt-
induced aggregation of the clay that leads to larger inter-
connected porosity in the cake (Santiwong et al. 2008).
However, our results have to be balanced by the fact that
we work with only one kind of salt. Indeed, the aggre-
gation process could have been different when using
another electrolyte solution such as CaCl2 instead of
NaCl (Quirk and Schofield 1955; Stawinski et al. 1990).
Fluid–particle interaction modeling
In this section, we analyze and discuss the results obtained
by numerical simulations. The discussion focuses on fluid–
particle interaction as it is one of the hypothesis to explain
the variations in clogging observations. We also investigate

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338 Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342

Fig. 13  Streamlines colored by
water velocity for a monodis-
persed flow with 5 µm particle
diameter, 6 × 10−5 particle
volume fraction at inlet and a
mass load of 1.7 × 10−4 (case
L5b of Table 1)

Fig. 14  Water velocity (a) and turbulent kinetic energy (b) profiles L5b; 20 µm, case L20b and 60 µm, case L60b), 6 10−5 particle vol-
for a flow without particles (case L0a of Table 1) or for a monodis- ume fraction at inlet and a mass load of 1.7 10−4 (Table 1)
persed flow with different seeding particle diameters (5 µm, case

particle dispersion within labyrinth depending on their size
and their concentration. We quantify in detail the veloc-
ity and turbulence changes due to particle agglomeration.
This approach is innovative as very few studies tackle this
process.
Without particles
Before injecting particles into the water, the pressure flow
relationship observed is validated. Figure 12 illustrates
that the flow is composed of a high-velocity regions with
a maximum at 2.2 m s−1 and low swirl effect, which is
in agreement with previous work (Wei et al. 2006, 2012;
Dazhuang et al. 2007 ). The size of the smallest eddy struc-
ture, known as the Kolmogorov microscale η, is calculated
using the following formula:
1/4
ν3
η=
ǫav
ǫav correspond to the averaged value of ǫ on the whole laby-
rinth fluid domain (surface). For an average value of turbu-
lent dissipation ǫav of 129 m2 s−3 (numerically estimated), η
is approximately 10 mm. Subsequently, particles larger and
smaller than η are numerically injected in order to charac-
terize their effect on flow structure as presented further.
Monodispersed laden flow
Cases L5b, L20b, L60b and L20c (Table 1) are analyzed.
Only particle size and mass load impacts are studied with-
out aggregation and breakage mechanisms. Mass load m is
defined according to the following formula:
ρp
m = φp (13)
ρf
Figure 13 shows that the velocity fields are maintained even
though particles are added. Water velocity appears slightly
(12) decreased, especially at the edges of the baffles. To better

13
Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342 339
Fig. 15  Particle volume fraction distribution for different seeding
particle diameters (5 µm, case L5b; 20 µm, case L20b and 60 µm,
case L60b), 6 10−5 particle volume fraction at inlet and a mass load
of 1.7 10−4 (Table 1)
understand particles impact on the flow, profiles are plot-
ted on a transversal line (line a in Fig. 13). This line goes
through the main flow and a recirculation zone.
Regarding impact of particle diameters, Fig. 14 clearly
shows that when particles are injected water velocity and
turbulent kinetic energy decrease. However, particle size
does not have any specific influence: Intensities are the
same for all diameters. Unexpectedly, 5-µm-diameter
particles do not increase the flow as observed in the
clogging test with illite–calcite particles. When cal-
culating the Reynolds number for each case, it appears
that it decreases from 770 without particles (case L0a)
to 730 with particles (cases L5b, L20b and L60b). This
Fig. 16  Water velocity (a) and turbulent kinetic energy (b) profiles
for 20-µm-diameter particles and different mass load: 6 10−5 particle
volume fraction at inlet and a mass load of 1.7 10−4 (case L20b) com-
turbulence reduction is consistent with Kulick et al.
(1994), who observe that turbulent intensity is reduced
when small particles are added to a flow. Yuan and
Michaenidies (1992) assume that this reduction is related
to additional dissipation, which is caused by the particle
drag force.
Figure  15 reveals that the particle volume fractions for
case L20b and L60b are close to zero in the recirculation
zone, whereas for L5b it is well distributed over the line a.
Moreover, the particle volume fraction variation for these
two cases is very significant in the main flow. These results
are to be expected because L5b particles are smaller than
η and can enter a vortex with a size of η, unlike particles
L20b and L60b which are bigger than η and thus follow the
main flow without entering the recirculation zone. Looking
further in the recirculation zone (y < 0.5 mm), it appears
that 20-µm-diameter particles can be trapped in the swirl;
contrary to 60-µm-diameter ones. This observation agrees
with Niu et al. (2013) that underline that there exists a sen-
sitive particle range (around 30 µm diameter) which favor
deposit in swirl region. Cases L20b and L20c are compared
to discuss particle volume fraction impact on the flow prop-
erties. Figure 16 shows the profiles of water velocity and
turbulent kinetic energy. Even though the particle volume
fraction at the inlet is increased by 1000 times, the overall
profile remains almost the same: Water velocity has slightly
increased (1 %) in the recirculation zone. The impact on
turbulent kinetic energy is higher; the maximum value in
the recirculation zone increases by about 20 %. This result
contradicts previous works (Kulick et al. 1994; Vreman
2007) which assume that turbulence decreases as mass load
increases. This discrepancy may be explained by the fact
pared with 6 10−2 particle volume fraction at inlet and a mass load of
1.09 10−1 (case L20c) (Table 1)
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340 Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342

that the flow structure inside a dripper is not representative

of cylindrical pipe flow and that our mass loads are much
lower.

Polydispersed laden flow

Aggregation and breakage mechanism impacts are ana-

lyzed (cases Lpoly and Lpoly-b) in this section. This
section is an innovative work as very few work are deal-
ing with multi-phase flow modeling in drippers (Lin and
Yang 2007; Qingsong et al. 2008) and none of them are
approaching aggregation and breakage mechanisms.
When comparing the two figures (Fig. 17), we note
that the recirculation center changes position when aggre-
gation and breakage mechanism are activated: Lpoly-b
main flow area is narrower than Lpoly, and consequently,
swirl zones are larger. This may be due to the increase of
smaller particles produced by aggregation and breakage
in swirl zones (not shown here) which thus modify this
area. Particle–particle interaction seems to change velocity
contours. When compared to Lpoly (Fig. 18), the velocity
profile of Lpoly-b decreases whereas the turbulent kinetic
energy increases significantly (fourfold) in the main flow
area. The turbulent kinetic energy reflects velocity fluctua-
tions. Therefore, according to the results obtained, it would
appear that velocity fluctuations are more significant when
there are particle–particle interactions. Collision and coag-
ulation between particles consistently influence mixture
turbulence.

Conclusions and perspectives

The concept on which drip irrigation relies makes it sensi-

tive to clogging phenomena. Filtration is usually installed
upstream to mitigate such occurrences. In situ observations
demonstrate that the filtration technique is not totally pre-
venting any clogging when small particles go through the
filter and agglomerate further in bigger aggregates. The pre-
vailing hypothesis is that such aggregation is governed by
the presence of clay particles whose electric charges allow
agglomeration in the presence of salts. The role of salt con-
centration and flow path strain rate appear to be determinant.
Such phenomena are investigated through experiments in
controlled laboratory conditions with reactive (smectite) and
inert (illite–calcite mix) clays. Taylor–Couette experiments
show that smectite particle size varies depending on strain
rate and salt concentrations but tends to have an asymptotical
diameter of 20 µm at high strain rate (higher than 100 s−1)
whatever the salt concentrations. As expected, the illite–cal-
cite mix particle size does not evolve even for high strain
rate and high salt concentrations. Such sharp difference may
explain the high variability of drippers behavior in terms
Fig. 17  Streamlines colored by water velocity for 6 10−5 particle
volume fraction at inlet, a total mass load of 1.7 10−4 and different
polydispersed particles: a Lpoly-b [(an initial diameter classes of
5 µm with a mass load of 1.7 10−4 and aggregation and breakage pro-
cess simulated by Luo model (Luo 1993)] and b Lpoly (20 diameter
classes from 1 to 80 µm injected at the inlet with 3 10−6 volume frac-
tions for each one) (Table 1)
of clogging in the field that may rely on the mineralogy of
clay transported by the water. Clogging tests are performed
with clay in suspension in water. The flow rate is measured
on four lines of ten drippers. The first observation is that
particles impact the flow rate whatever their size. A flow
rate decrease or increase for smectite and illite–calcite mix,
respectively, is observed. This supports the idea that there is
an interaction between the flow turbulent structure and the
particles. Second, the results obtained support the view that
salt concentrations, and thus particle size, are not directly

13
Irrig Sci (2016) 34:327–342 341
Fig. 18  Water velocity (a) and turbulent kinetic energy (b) pro-
files for 6 10−5 particle volume fraction at inlet, a total mass load of
1.7 10−4 and different polydispersed particles: with [(Lpoly-b: an ini-
tial diameter classes of 5 µm with a mass load of 1.7 10−4 and aggre-
correlated with the clogging mechanism. A surprising ten-
dency is observed: Increasing salt concentrations in smectite
suspension decreases clogging, whereas it increases agglom-
erate size. Further experiments based on optical technologies
could greatly improve our understanding. Such works are
ongoing with also others kinds of salt and clay (kalonite).
Fluid–particles interaction has been studied thanks to an
Eulerian model of the particle–fluid mix. Particles in suspen-
sion impact turbulent kinetic energy and velocity: (1) inject-
ing inert particles reduces overall water velocity and turbu-
lent kinetic energy of the mixture in the flow. It also reduces
the turbulence of the flow (decrease of Reynolds number);
(2) inert particle size does not affect either water velocity or
turbulent kinetic energy and hence does not modify the flow
rate. However, particles are not distributed in the same way
depending on their size relative to the Kolmogorov micro-
scale; (3) mass load (in the range studied) does not influ-
ence water velocity, but it increases turbulent kinetic energy
in the recirculation zone; (4) agglomeration and break-up
mechanisms influence turbulence, which result in a veloc-
ity decrease. These numerical results need to be further ana-
lyzed and extended to a tridimensional modeling of the flow.
In future works, we plan to use low Reynolds number mod-
els which should greatly improve our results.
Acknowledgments This work has been funded by the Region
Provence-Alpes-Cotes d’Azur and IRSTEA, the National Research
Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture.
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