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© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Rainfall simulators represent often-used equipment for soil research. Depending on their performance, they could be appropriate for some soil research or not. The aim of this research is to provide insight into the capabilities of existing dripping rainfall simulators (DRS) to mimic natural rainfall and the frequency of simulated rainfalls of certain characteristics, facilitate the selection of rain simulators that would best meet the needs of soil research and to reach a step closer to the standardization of rainfall simulators. DRS performance was analyzed integrally, for simulators with more than one dripper (DRS>1) and with one dripper (DRS=1). A statistical analysis was performed for the performance of the DRS, wetted area, drop size, rainfall intensity, duration and kinetic energy. The analysis showed that DRS can provide rainfall that corresponds to natural rainfall, except in terms of the drop size distribution and wetted area. However, usually there are more factors that do not correspond to natural rainfall, such as the median drop size, volume and kinetic energy. Metal and plastic tubes (MT and PT) as the most present dripper types showed a strong relation between the outer diameter (OD) and drop size, while the inner diameter (ID) relation was moderate-to-weak. However, when increasing the range of MT drippers, for diameter size, the relation significance becomes very strong for bouts ID and OD. With the increase in the ID of PT, the relation deviates from the logarithmic curve that represents all drippers together. The sizes of the drops generated by the drippers are mostly in the range between 2 and 6 mm, while the number of drops smaller than 2 mm is relatively small. The intensity and duration of the simulated rain can be successfully produced to match natural values, with the most frequently simulated short-term rainfall of a high intensity. Most simulations were conducted at a fall height of up to 2 m, and then their number gradually decreases as the height gets closer to 5 m. Most simulations (58.6%) occur in the range between 20-90% KE, then 33.0% in a range of 90-100%, with only 8.4% lower than 20% KE.

Details

Title
Dripping Rainfall Simulators for Soil Research—Performance Review
Author
Rončević, Vukašin 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Živanović, Nikola 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; van Boxel, John H 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Iserloh, Thomas 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Štrbac, Snežana 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, Njegoševa 12, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia 
 Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade, Kneza Višeslava 1, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia 
 Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands 
 Department of Physical Geography, Trier University, Universitätsring 15, 54296 Trier, Germany 
First page
1314
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20734441
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2799739169
Copyright
© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.