The irrigation management techniques, the hydraulic conditions and durability of the equipment under different operation conditions are important factors to be considered in irrigation systems and must be evaluated permanently. The main scope of this work was to analyze a methodology to quantify the abrasive effect of solid-liquid mixtures on rotary sprinklers nozzles and evaluating the effect of the variation in discharge, nozzle mass, discharge coefficient, dimensions of sprinkler nozzles made of brass, plastic and bronze and hydraulic system on performance. Two water - sand solutions having solid concentrations of 140 mg L-1± 10% (C1) and 230 mg L-1± 10% (C2). The operation pressure was 300 kPa with a test duration of 2100 h and readings interval of 150 h. The hydraulic module showed to be capable to simulate the wear of sprinkler nozzles for both concentrations of solids, although heating of the solid-liquid mixture was found to increase. The use of molds to measure the nozzle diameter, showed efficient and adequate precision the objective of this work, with less consistent results for the plastic for nozzles. The sprinkler discharge increased 2.97, 1.98 and 0.96% for the brass, plastic and bronze nozzles, respectively, for both solid concentrations.
manufacturing materials; durability; methodology of the nozzle wear
