Method and theory for rapid development of drip emitters for drip irrigation with low cost

In order to decrease the period and cost of emitter development, some advanced technologies, such as computer aided design (CAD), computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and rapid prototyping (RP), were used to establish a process of drip emitters with low cost. The three-dimensional parameterized channel model for drip emitters was designed using the method of CAD. The function used for visually analyzing the hydraulic performance of emitters, was realized by numerical simulation based on CFD, which greatly reduced the times of the iterative experimentation using practical emitter products. Additionally, using the technology of rapid prototyping, the emitter prototypes for experimentation can be rapidly manufactured without steel moulds, and the experimentation can be directly performed with these prototypes. Then, the period and the cost of the emitter development could be reduced. Taking the emitter developed by the authors for an example, the results indicated that the development period and cost were decreased more than fifty percent.