Abstract: A mesh filter is one of the key components of micro-irrigation systems, which plays an important role in filtering impurities and slowing down dripper blocking. The filter head loss tends to increase with the increase of intercepted impurities, resulting in screen breakage or forcing system shutdown. This study adopted the method of inductive analysis of literature data to carry out K-means cluster analysis on the head loss data of vertical, composite, horizontal, torpedo, flap, Y-type and hand-cranked cleaning of 7 types of mesh filters at different stages, and summarized the trend of dynamic change of head loss. Then, in order to clarify the reasons for the surge in head loss for the Y-mesh filter, the study designed three types of flow rates of 2.5, 3.5, and 4.5 m³/h, three sediment concentrations of 60, 80, and 100 mg/L and four grades of sand-containing water mainly of >54-75 ( Grade Ⅰ ), >75-100 ( Grade Ⅱ ), >100-125 ( Grade Ⅲ ), and >125-150 μm ( Grade Ⅳ) respectively, and carried out a full-scale experiment to test the effects of different flow rates, sediment concentrations, and sand grades on the head loss of the filter. With the main objectives of reducing the head loss surge and improving the sand stopping effect, a CRITIC-TOPSIS comprehensive evaluation was carried out with the evaluation indexes of increase rate of head loss during steady increase stage, increase rate of head loss during sudden increase stage, clogging uniformity, total operation time, total head loss and desanding rate to optimize the suitable operating conditions of the Y-filter. The results showed: 1) The change in different types of mesh filters head loss over time was divided into a steady increase stage and a sudden increase stage, the sudden increase in the stage of the head loss had larger growth rate and shorter operation time; The ratio of the duration of both stages was greater than 0.5, and the filter clogging uniformity was greater than 1. 2) Under the same flow rate and concentration, grade Ⅲ and grade Ⅳ were more likely to produce head loss surge than grade Ⅰ and grade Ⅱ. Under the same flow rate, the head loss surge was more likely to occur under high concentration conditions. Under the same concentration, the head loss surge was most likely to occur when the flow rate was 3.5 m³/h. 3) The results of CRITIC-TOPSIS comprehensive evaluation showed that the top three indexes affecting the hydraulic performance were 100-125, 125-150 and 75-100 μm water with the flow rate of 2.5 m³/h and the sediment concentration of 60 mg/L, and their comprehensive score indexes were 0.726, 0.712 and 0.711, respectively. The combinations of low sediment concentrations and larger particle gradations, as well as those with high sediment concentrations and smaller particle gradations, performed well at a flow rate of 2.5 m³/h. However, when the flow rate increased to 4.5 m³/h, the combinations of the higher sediment concentrations and the larger particle sizes exhibited superior comprehensive performance. In contrast, those with low sediment concentrations and small particle gradations demonstrated relatively consistent performance across all the three flow rates tested. The study can provide valuable information for reducing head loss and increasing operation time of filter.