Estimation of advance and infiltration equations in furrow irrigation for untested discharges

The exponents of the advance and infiltration power laws have been shown to remain practically constant for different furrow irrigation discharges. Under this hypothesis, a procedure to estimate the advance and infiltration equations corresponding to untested discharges was developed. The proposed procedure was validated with different field experiments, obtaining satisfactory results for non-erosive discharges. However, significant deviations were obtained when erosive discharges were used. This behavior corroborates the hypothesis presented by some authors that the erosion and sedimentation processes occurring in furrow irrigation as a consequence of high surface velocities can reduce—and even suppress—the effect of the wetted perimeter on the infiltration rate. Finally, an equation was derived to predict the effect of the wetted perimeter on the infiltration parameters.