Experimental study on influence factors of two-dimensional infiltration in furrow irrigation

In order to understand the patterns of water infiltration in furrow irrigation, the experiment was conducted to study the effects of water depth, bottom width, bottom hydraulic conductivity of furrow irrigation and initial soil moisture content on two-dimensional infiltration in furrow irrigation. The results revealed that reducing the water depth and bottom hydraulic conductibility of furrow irrigation, and increasing initial soil moisture content were beneficial to increasing horizontally lateral infiltration and concurrently reducing vertical infiltration but their bottom width only affected lateral infiltration other than vertical infiltration; when the width decreased, the vertical infiltration decreased. Of these influence factors, the bottom hydraulic conductivity showed the strongest influence on infiltration. When the irrigation quota was 45 mm, the depth of the vertical water infiltration decreased by 41% at the conductivity of zero compared with that in bare ground irrigation thereby remarkably changing the shape of infiltration body in furrow irrigation.