Optimization of hydraulic performance for drip irrigation trapezoidal labyrinth channel of emitter using response surface methodology

The hydraulic performance of drip irrigation emitter was affected by five parameters, the width, length, depth, angle and unit number of the trapezoidal labyrinth channel. In order to investigate these parameters, three-level Box-Benhnken design was carried out. By solving the quadratic regression model equation using appropriate statistic methods, the optimum parameters were determined. The width, length, depth, angle and unit number were 1.55 mm, 2.33 mm, 1.55 mm, 46.32° and 20, respectively. The flow index was 0.4993 and the flux coefficient was 0.4441.The hydraulic performance of drip irrigation emitter can be improved by 5.624% when optimum parameters were adopted.