Average relative flow of single-wing labyrinth drip irrigation tape based on projection pursuit regression

Abstract The hydraulic performance of single-wing labyrinth drip irrigation tapes under the coupling effect of water and fertilizer affects the operating efficiency of the entire drip irrigation system. In this study, three types of single-wing labyrinth drip irrigation tapes were studied. We evaluated the average relative flow of each type and conducted indoor uniform orthogonal tests of three factors, namely, fertilizer concentration, sediment content, and operating pressure. The results showed that the order of the factors affecting the average relative flow of single-wing labyrinth drip irrigation tape was sediment content > fertilizer concentration > operating pressure. The projection pursuit regression (PPR) models of the average relative flow of three types of single-wing labyrinth drip irrigation tapes (H1, H2, and H3) were established. The root mean square errors (nRMSE) of these three models were 0.66%, 0.74%, 0.34%, respectively, indicating their excellent prediction performance. The optimal performance of the three types of tapes were obtained when the fertilizer concentration was 0.6 g/L, the sediment content was 1 g/L, and the operating pressure was 40 kPa. Under the optimal condition, the average relative flows of H1-type, H2-type, and H3-type were 0.792, 0.764, and 0.700, respectively.