Research Article

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

2018, Vol. 10(1) 1–10
Ó The Author(s) 2018
The mechanism of emitter clogging DOI: 10.1177/1687814017743025
journals.sagepub.com/home/ade
analyzed by CFD–DEM simulation and
PTV experiment

Liming Yu1, Na Li1, Jun Long2, Xiaogang Liu1 and Qiliang Yang1

Abstract
Small but complicated labyrinth channel emitters are easily clogged. In this study, computational fluid dynamics–discrete
element method coupling approach was employed to investigate the mechanism of emitter clogging caused by particles
in size of 65, 100, and 150 mm. Computational fluid dynamics used Navier–Stokes equation to analyze flow characteris-
tics of continuous phase. Discrete element method used Newton’s laws of motion to measure single particle motion and
group distribution of disperse phase. Particle tracking velocimetry was also utilized to follow the trajectories and velocity
of single particle. Our results indicated that the smaller the particle size, the less the total force. Tiny sands were mainly
influenced by drag forces. The amplitude between tooth tips was small. Particles moved basically in the main stream with
fast velocity and short travel distance, thereby having good following performance. It took shorter time to reach micro-
dynamic balance. Meanwhile, the amount of sediments in the labyrinth channel was less. Particles in size of 150 mm were
mainly affected by inertial forces. They can easily enter vortex areas. Sands staying longer than 0.1 s in the labyrinth chan-
nel accounted for 37.9% of total number. Sand groups were mainly distributed at the inlet of labyrinth channel. The more
sands trapped in vortex areas, the easier it was to precipitate and cause emitter clogging.

Keywords
Clogging, emitter, labyrinth channel, particle size, two-phase flow

Date received: 22 February 2017; accepted: 11 October 2017

Handling Editor: Francisco Denia

Introduction the channels. Nowadays, more and more researches

So far, as the most water-conserving precision irriga-
tion technique, drip irrigation can effectively alleviate
the shortage of water resources. Emitter is the most
important part of the irrigating system. Besides, labyr-
inth channel emitter is presently one of the most exten-
sively applied drippers.1 However, the flow passage of
the labyrinth channel emitter is narrow, resulting in
easily clogging by solid particles, organics, and
microbes.2 For example, the average sediment concen-
tration of the main stream of the Yellow River reaches
up to 35 kg/m3 over the years, which brings great risks
to the currently running irrigating systems in that area.3
Although sediment content is considerably reduced
using filtration apparatus, sand granules can still enter
have been focused on whether those sands will precipi-
tate and cause emitter clogging or not.
Nakayama and Bucks4 considered suspended particles
as a sensitive factor that had brought about the clogging
of emitters. Camp5 thought total suspended solid (TSS)
1
Faculty of Modern Agricultural Engineering, Kunming University of
Science and Technology, Kunming, China
2
School of Hydraulic Engineering, Changsha University of Science &
Technology, Changsha, China
Corresponding author:
Liming Yu, Faculty of Modern Agricultural Engineering, Kunming
University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, Yunnan, China.
Email: liming16900@sina.com

Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
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open-access-at-sage).
2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
Figure 1. CAD model of the emitter with geometrical parameters: (a) structure of tooth shape labyrinth channel, (b) dimensions
of tooth shape labyrinth channel, and (c) hexahedron mesh.
was closely related to emitter blocking. Many studies have
been done on the movement of solid particles in the flow
channels including computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
numerical simulation of the two-phase flow and particle
tracking velocimetry (PTV) particle movement measure-
ment. CFD modeling has been a major interest of
researchers in engineering field.6,7 Li et al.8 investigated
water and sediment two-phase flow in the channel of
emitter with CFD. Our research optimized the structure
of labyrinth channel and significantly reduced emitter
clogging using external factors.9 Wei et al.10 measured
solid particle movement in the flow channel using PTV
and confirmed the results of CFD simulation. But CFD
simulation is based on discrete phase mode (DPM) in
Lagrangian coordinate system. Particles were added after
flow field calculation without considering the influence of
particles on the flow field or the collisions among particles
or between the particles and the wall. Although grain flow
in the emitter is dilute-phase flow, the velocity and direc-
tion of water changes frequently. Therefore, either the col-
lision among particles or that between the particles and
the wall is not to be neglected. Classical discrete element
method (DEM) model was proposed by Cundall and
Strack.11 In recent years, CFD-DEM coupling system
was developed to determine the collision among granules
or between the granules and the wall. However, no
numerical simulation of particle movement in the emitter
has been reported. In this study, CFD-DEM coupling
approach was adopted to investigate movement and dis-
tribution of sediment in the flow and the possible block-
ing positions caused by granules. PTV was employed to
determine the direction and velocity of movement. Our
study revealed the mechanism of emitter clogging and
provided theoretical foundation for flow channel structure
optimization. The CFD and DEM software used in this
research was Fluent12.0 and EDEM2.2, respectively.
Materials and methods
Physical model and boundary conditions
The structure of tooth shape labyrinth channel was
indicated in Figure 1(a). The flow path was closely
against the inner wall of drip irrigation pipe. Water in
the drip line entered channel through filter grid, then
converged at the exit after energy dissipation and finally
effused from the drip line after punching in the corre-
sponding positions of pipe. There are a variety of chan-
nel dimensions. The dimensions adopted in this study
are illustrated in Figure 1(b). The flow path had a
length (S) of 20.62 mm, and depth (D) of 1.41 mm. The
sectional area (A) was 1.33 mm2. The angle of the tooth
prong was 65°. The tooth space width (L) was 2.2 mm,
and the tooth height (H) was 1.2 mm. In line with the
actual operational condition of the drip irrigation sys-
tem, pressure boundary conditions for the inlet and out-
let were defined. If the inlet pressure is 50,000 Pa and
0 Pa is the outlet pressure, others are wall boundary
conditions. By adopting the finite volume method, the
better simulated results can be got from the small size
of flow path and the grid spacing set at 0.1 mm. As
shown in Figure 1(c), the mesh number of hexahedron
was 39,830 after gridding, little influence on the final
results was found when using even finer grids.
Mathematical model and simulation method
The flow in channel can be considered as a viscous
incompressible fluid, running under normal temperature.
The effect of gravity and channel wall roughness was
regarded. The influence of surface tension was ignored.
At present, Reynold’s number of emitters (Re) is roughly
among 78–1284. Nishimura found that laminar turbulent
transition occurred when Re was between 200 and 350,
Yu et al. 3

Table 1. Parameters used in the model.17

Phase Parameter Symbol Units Value

Solid Density distribution r kg/m3 2500

Particle diameter di mm 65 mm, 100 mm, 150 mm
Rolling friction coefficient mr 0.005
Sliding friction coefficient ms – 0.3
Poisson’s ratio V – 0.4
Young’s modulus E N/m2 2 3 107
Coefficient of restitution C – 0.545
Particle velocity at inlet – m/s 1.02
Water Density r kg/m3 998.2
Viscosity m kg/m/s 0.001
Velocity at inlet – m/s 1.02
Pressure at inlet – Pa 50,000
Pressure at outlet – Pa 0.000

which was far less than the critical Reynold’s number of
the conventional straight path.12,13 Other similar experi-
mental results were also reported at a number of times.14
There are two reasons for this: first, because of the small
cross-sectional area of the flow passage which can be eas-
ily affected by the roughness of the wall and so on; sec-
ond, because of the labyrinth’s complicated flow channel
boundaries, the structures are bending and changeable
which is more likely to turn laminar flow to turbulent
flow as shown in equation (1)15
rVR
Re =
m tional forces such as pressure gradient force, virtual
where Re is Reynold’s number, r (kg/m3) is the density
of fluids, V (m/s) is the average velocity, R (m) is the
hydraulic radius of flow, and m (kg/(m s)) is the viscos-
ity coefficient of fluids.
The working pressure of emitter was 50,000 Pa, the
rated flow was 4.85 L/h, and Reynold’s number Re was
286. The unsteady standard k 2 e turbulence model was
adopted for the simulation of continuous phase.
The continuity equation is16
∂ velocity of sands and counter reflect to the flow field.
(ruj ) = 0
∂xj
The momentum equation is
  
∂ ∂p ∂ ∂ui ∂uj
r (ui uj ) =  + m + ð3Þ
∂xi ∂xj ∂xi ∂xj ∂xi
r is the density of fluid; ui and uj are both fluid velocity,
which is the sum of average fluid velocity and turbulent
velocity; and m is dynamic viscosity.
Sediments used belonged to dilute phase flow
with the maximum particle volume fraction of 1%.
Lagrangian coupling system was adopted in this study.
Table 1 indicates the specific parameter settings. The
total time of numerical simulation is 1.0 s, and every
time increment size is 0.001 s. The total record is 1000
times. The discrete approach was employed to simulate
sand movement, collisions among granules and between
granules and the wall, the effect of sand movement to
the surrounding continuous phase, and energy and
momentum exchange. Collisions among sands and
between sands and the wall did not lead to significant
plastic deformation, thereby attributing to hard particle
contact, which is a wet grain contact model. ‘‘Hertz–
Mindlin (no slip) built-in’’ was utilized in this study.
The overriding consideration in the process of calcu-
lation was viscous drag force and gravity. Other addi-
ð1Þ
mass force, and Saffman force had smaller order of
magnitude compared with the former; thus, they were
not considered.18 The referring equations19 can be seen
in Table 2.
The two-way coupling process of CFD and DEM is
as follows: continuous phase was solved by CFD to
acquire fluid drag force in sediments, which was trans-
formed from flow field information through drag force
model. The stress state of sediments was measured by
DEM to obtain new information such as position and
ð2Þ CFD was used to renew the flow and produce the latest
stress condition of sediments. The two approaches were
coupled by a certain model that carried out transmis-
sion of mass, momentum, and energy.
PTV flow test platform and experimental sediments
PTV experimental platform consisted of continuous
light source, high-speed camera, and VS-M0910 magni-
fying lens (Figure 2). Movias Pro Viewer 1.63 analysis
software can calculate the velocity of particles and dis-
play direction of movement according to the distance
they move per unit time. The test platform was engraved
in plexiglass using numerical control machines, covered
by Lucite plate with good light transmission to seal the
4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Table 2. The referring equations and specifications.

S/N Name Equations Specifications

1 The normal force (Fn) 4   1=2 3=2 R is the equivalent radius

Fn = E (R ) a a is the normal overlap
3
2 The equivalent elastic modulus E 1 1  v12 1  v22 E1 , v1 and E2 , v2 are elastic modulus
= + and Poisson’s ratio of sand 1 and sand 2
E Er
1 ffiffiffi E2
3 The damping force Fnd 5 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi vnrel is the normal relative velocity
Fnd =  2 b Sn m vnrel Sn is the normal stiffness
6
b is coefficient
4 The equivalent mass m m1 m2 m1 and m2 are the mass of sand 1 and sand 2
m =
m1 + m2
5 The tangential force among the sands Ft Ft =  Stp
d ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi d is the tangential overlap
6 The tangential stiffness St St = 8G R a
7 The equivalent shear modulus G 2  v12 2  v22 G1 and G2 are shear modulus of sand 1 and sand 2
G = +
G1 G2
rffiffiffi v1 and v2 are velocity of sand 1 and sand 2
8 The tangential damping force 5 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi vtrel is the tangential relative velocity
among sand particles Ft Ft =  2 b St m vtrel
6
9 The rolling friction (Ti) Ti =  mr Fn Ri vi mr is the coefficient of rolling friction
Ri is the distance between the center of
mass to the point of contact
vi is the unit angular velocity vector of
object at the contact point

maximum of particle size was adopted such as 150, 100,

and 65 mm.

Results and analyses

Figure 2. PTV experimental platform.
1: Continuous light; 2: labyrinth channel; 3: amplifying lens; 4: high-speed
camera.
flow channel. In this experiment, 100 sieve and 120 sieve
screen meshes were utilized to sift out grains at a diameter
of 150–125 mm. In all, 150 sieve and 180 sieve screen
meshes were employed to sift out sands at a diameter of
100–90 mm. In all, 270 sieve and 220 sieve screen meshes
were used to sift out grains at a diameter of 65–58 mm. In
total, 10 continuous grains of sand were collected to ana-
lyze their movement. Particles were delivered at a concen-
tration of 12 g/L and stirred constantly in the water tank
to ensure a moderate sediment content and even distribu-
tion in flow. For CFD numerical simulation, the
Characteristics of flow field of continuous phase
Figure 3(a) shows the pressure distribution chart at half
of the channel depth under 50,000 Pa working pressure.
There was no energy exchange with the outside.
Friction loss and minor loss were provided by pressure
drop. A linear reduction of pressure in the direction of
flow was found. Besides, the pressure drop in each unit
was approximately the same. Figure 3(b) indicates the
velocity distribution chart at half of the channel depth
under 50,000 Pa working pressure. Except the first unit
at the inlet, velocity distribution at other inlets was
basically the same with the speed range of 0.18–
2.91 m/s. The flow velocity reached maximum near the
tooth tip, and the minimum appeared approaching the
center of wall and vortex. Figure (4) shows the velocity
streamlines of the fourth unit under 50,000 Pa working
pressure. A represented the main flow. B represented
the vortex area. In Figure 3(b), each vortex area was
labeled with a number with a total of 17 vortex areas.
The flow channel consisted of an inlet, a middle part
and an outlet. (1)–(6) indicated inlet. (7)–(11) repre-
sented the middle part, and (12)–(17) indicated outlet.
It suggested that there was an obvious boundary
between the main stream and vortex area. The main
stream was close to the tooth tip, which changed with
Yu et al.
Figure 3. The distribution chart of pressure and velocity at half
of the channel depth under 50,000 Pa working pressure:
(a) pressure distribution chart and (b) velocity distribution chart.
Figure 4. The velocity streamlines of the fourth unit under
50,000 Pa working pressure.
the position shift of the tooth tip. The instantaneous
velocity was approximately 1.1–2.91 m/s. The vortex
areas were away from the tooth tip and the main
stream, which formed some independent closed areas
with instantaneous velocity around 0.18–0.53 m/s.
Figure 5. Numerically obtained particle trajectories in the channel: (a) particles with a diameter of 65 mm, (b) 100 mm, and
(c) 150 mm.
5
Analysis of representative sediment movement
Sediments entered labyrinth channel after releasing at
random location of inlet. The initial velocity was the
average flow rate which was 1.02 m/s. Figure 5 shows
the direction of movement of representative sediments
in a diameter of 65, 100, and 150 mm, respectively.
Particles in size of 65 mm mainly moved in the main
stream without entering vortex area, thereby indicating
very good following performance. When the diameter
increased to 100 mm, particles moved primarily in the
main stream. However, the motion amplitude in the
Y-axis increased with four times entering the 16th vor-
tex area. Compared with 65 mm sands, their paths are
in disorder. For particles in size of 150 mm, the moving
trajectory was more disturbed with larger amplitude in
the Y-axis and multiple times of departure from the
main stream entering several vortex areas. The reasons
are that the drag force on sediments is proportional to
the square of the particle size. But the inertial force is
proportionate to the cube of the diameter of sands. The
force condition of different sediments varies in different
sizes. For particles in the size of 65 mm, the drag force
was far beyond the inertial force. Hence, sands moved
only in the main stream. With the increase in diameters,
the drag force and inertial force tended to equilibrium.
For sediments in the size of 100 mm, the drag force was
close to the inertial force, which enhanced the probabil-
ity of sands into the vortex. When the diameter went
up to 150 mm, the inertial force became the major force.
Particles tended to leave the main stream and enter vor-
tex areas under the effect of inertial force. Thus, the
trajectories of sediments were disarranged. All sand
movement displayed various degrees of disturbance
due to rapid change of flow directions in the channel,
especially in the vortex area with flow velocity at
approximately 0.18–0.53 m/s. Both velocity and sand
movement were slow. Sediments underwent endless cir-
cular low-speed motion if they could not leave the vor-
tex area. With the increase in time and numbers, they
6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 6. Velocity and force condition of representative sand particles: (a) particles with a diameter of 65 mm, (b) 100 mm, and
(c) 150 mm.

could easily form adhesive aggregates and cause emitter PTV tracing of sediments
clogging. Figures 7(a)–(c) and 8(a)–(c) indicate the trajectories
Figure 6 shows the velocity and total force of the rep-
and velocity of representative sand movement in dia-
resentative sediments in Figure 5. For particles in the
meters of 65, 100, and 150 mm measured by PTV. In all,
size of 65 mm, the force was even with small variations.
10 grains of sand were traced, respectively. Due to lim-
The force was small with the magnitude at 1027–1026.
itations of viewing region and clarity, only the fourth
The corresponding velocity change was small. The range
and fifth channel units, including the main stream of
of velocity was 0.76–2.37 m/s. The average velocity was
the fourth and fifth channel units and the 7th, 8th, 9th,
1.48 m/s. For particles in the size of 100 mm, the varia-
and 10th vortex areas, were measure in the PTV experi-
tion of force was complex with magnitude at 1026. The
ment in this study.
corresponding velocity changed considerably. The range
Figures 7(d)–(f) and 8(d)–(f) indicate the trajectories
of velocity was 0.08–2.05 m/s. The average velocity was
and velocity of representative sand movement in diameters
0.77 m/s. For particles in the size of 150 mm, the varia-
of 65, 100, and 150 mm measured by numerical simulation,
tion of force was complicated and huge. The absolute
they are the same fourth and fifth channel units measured
value of force was also great with 1026–1025 in magni-
by PTV. The movement trajectories of sands, namely the
tude. The frequency of velocity changed drastically. The
representative sands’ trajectories in the fourth and fifth
range of velocity was 0.07–1.80 m/s. The average velo-
channel units, are shown in Figure 5(a)–(c). The velocity
city was the lowest, which was 0.55 m/s.
Yu et al. 7

Figure 7. PTV traced and numerical obtained of particle trajectories: (a) and (d) particles with a diameter of 65 mm,
(b) and (e) 100 mm, and (c) and (f) 150 mm.

Figure 8. PTV traced and numerical obtained of particle velocity: (a) and (d) particles with a diameter of 65 mm,
(b) and (e) 100 mm, and (c) and (f) 150 mm.

of the representative sands is what presented in the
fourth and fifth channel units of Figure 6(a)–(c). The
motion laws of sands measured by PTV and numerical
simulation are almost the same. With the increase in
sand sizes, sediments turned to be more and more dis-
turbed in the channel.
For particles of 65 mm in size, 10 sand trajectories
were approximately the same. No circular motion was
detected. The amplitude in the Y-axis was small. The
following performance of sand was great. A representa-
tive sand trajectories 7(a), exactly similar 7(d). The
average velocity of sands from the PTV was 1.32 m/s,
the average velocity of sands from the numerical simu-
lation was 1.82 m/s, and almost all velocities were larger
than 1.0 m/s. Therefore, the conclusion is that the sand
movement mostly stays in the main flow area and
8 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
Table 3. Characteristics of sand groups in flow channel at t = 1 s.
Characteristics of sand groups
Input velocity (per 0.01 s)
Time to reach input and output micro-balance (s)
No. of sands in channel after micro-balance
Variation of sand No. in channel after micro-balance (%)
No. of sands staying . 0.3 s in channel (%)
No. of sands staying . 0.2 s in channel (%)
No. of sands staying . 0.1 s in channel (%)
No. of sands staying in channel longer than those not involved in circulation (%)
passes through the fourth and the fifth units at higher
velocity (see Figure 8(a) and (d)).
For particles of 100 mm in size, 1 of 10 grains under-
went one time of circular movement. The amplitude in
the Y-axis increased. A representative sand trajectories
is shown in Figure 7(b). The same situation also
occurred in numerical simulation and it is shown in
Figure 7(e). The average velocity measured by PTV
was 0.99 m/s, whereas the numerical simulation mea-
sured number was 1.14 m/s. More than half of the time,
the movement velocity was between 0.5 and 1.0 m/s
which was apparently lower than the velocity of the
65 mm sand, which explained that although the sand
movement was in the main flow area, the larger the
amplitude of vibration, the more declining of the velo-
city (see Figure 8(b) and (e)).
For particles of 150 mm in size, 9 of 10 grains under-
went circular movement, among which one grain had
endless circular motion within limited tracing time. A
representative sand trajectories 7(c). In numerical simu-
lation, the results showed that sands entered into vortex
area to have a circulation movement which can be seen
in Figure 7(f). The average velocity of sands measured
by PTV was 0.68 m/s, while the average velocity from
the numerical simulation was 0.57 m/s. For most of the
time, the velocity of the sands was lower than 0.5 m/s
and that is apparently lower than the velocity of 65 mm
and 100 mm. Sands moved in vortex area for most of
the time with low velocity and they even could not
escape from vortex area (see in Figure 8(c) and (f)).
Analysis of movement of sand clusters
Figure 9 shows the distribution of sand clusters in the
size of 65, 100, and 150 mm at different time. The sedi-
ment volume was calculated at 1%. The time was 1 s.
The total number of grains detected in 1 s was 36,215,
25,658, and 7592, respectively. In combination with
Figures 6–8, they suggested that particles in the size of
65 mm and 100 mm moved fast. The input speed was
also fast. It reached micro-dynamic balance inside the
flow channel in a short time (0.03 s and 0.05 s,
Diameter (mm)
150 mm 100 mm 65 mm
76 257 362
0.50 0.05 0.03
1155 671 632
0.6 1.1 2.1
0.6 0 0
5.1 0 0
32.2 0 0
33.2 4.9 0.2
respectively, as shown in Table 3). However, the velo-
city of particles in the size of 150 mm was low. Hence,
the input speed was slow. It took a long time to attain
micro-dynamic balance (0.50 s as shown in Table 3).
Therefore, the time points in Figure 9(a)–(c) were dif-
ferent. For particles in size of 65 mm, all sand clusters
moved in the main stream without entering any vortex
area. The trajectories were almost the same. In the
effect of the drag force, particles got over the inertial
force and exhibited very good following performance.
For particles in size of 100 mm, most of sand clusters
moved in the main stream with lesser grains getting
into the vortex area. The trajectories were similar. The
drag force and inertial force were close, but the drag
force was dominant. Sediments had good follow-up
ability. For particles in size of 150 mm, the vast major-
ity of sands got into vortex areas, all grains had distinct
trajectories, and the inertial force was dominant, parti-
cles showed bad following performance.
After sand clusters reached dynamic equilibrium, the
number of sand particles in the size of 65, 100, and
150 mm in the channel was 632, 671, and 1155, respec-
tively. A certain fluctuation may happen. As indicated
in Table 2, more particles occurred in the channel with
bigger diameter and longer time. Part of sediments had
comparatively longer run time, for example, for parti-
cles in size of 150 mm, at t = 1.0 s, 0.6% of sediments
moved longer than 0.3 s in the channel. 5.1% of sedi-
ments moved longer than 0.2 s. 32.2% of sediments
moved longer than 0.1 s. 33.2% of sediments moved
longer than 0.044 s. The reason of this phenomenon is
due to participation of particles in the circulation. On
the contrary, it took only 0.044 s for particles not
involved in the circulation to pass through the same
channel, which accounted for merely 0.84% of total
sand clusters (Table 4). Sediments were difficult to
escape from vortex areas in the effect of inertial forces.
This is the major cause of emitter clogging.
The characteristics of sand clusters running through
the whole channel in 1 s are indicated in Table 4. The
circulating times increased with enlarging particle sizes.
The corresponding circulating times for particles in size
Yu et al. 9

Table 4. Characteristics of sand groups through flow channel

in 1 s.

Characteristics of sand Diameter (mm)

groups
150 mm 100 mm 65 mm

No. of sands through 6437 24,987 36,215

channel
No. of sands through 54 24,059 35,581
channel (not entering
circulation)
Average travel distance 28.67 25.93 23.23
(mm) of sands (not
entering circulation)
Average time (s) of sands 0.044 0.024 0.019
(not entering circulation)
Average velocity (m/s) of 0.65 1.08 1.36
sands (not entering
circulation)
Total times entering 71,047 1124 76
vortex areas:
(1) 0 0 0
(2) 1788 4 0
(3) 2723 62 6
(4) 5123 169 12
(5) 5295 38 3
(6) 4757 86 7
(7) 5105 40 4
(8) 4644 91 8
(9) 4898 44 0
(10) 4714 90 5
(11) 4970 41 3
(12) 5009 128 10
(13) 4720 37 2
(14) 4769 111 8
(15) 4923 33 1
Figure 9. Distribution of sand groups at different moments: (a)
(16) 4660 105 2
particles with a diameter of 65 mm, (b) particles with a diameter (17) 4949 45 0
of 100 mm, and (c) particles with a diameter of 150 mm.

of 65, 100, and 150 mm were 76, 1124, and 71,047,

respectively. The circulating times in different vortex
areas were arranged in descending order as outlet, mid-
dle, and outlet. The velocity reduced with rising num-
bers of circulation. Under the influence of surface
charges, particles tended to accumulate and precipitate
to cause the clogging of emitters. Our results were simi-
lar to those in other reference.20 The distribution of cir-
culating times not only had a certain regularity, which
occurred many times at the inlet, but it also showed
some randomness. Particles in size of 150 mm per-
formed 5295 times of circular motion in vortex area 5
in 1.0 s. Grains of sands collided many times. The colli-
sion among particles consumed immense kinetic energy,
making them unable to escape from the inertial force in
the vortex areas. The probability of precipitation enor-
mously increased with prolonged running time and
occurrence of flocculent materials. It consequently led
to emitter clogging.
Conclusion
In this study, the forces, trajectories, velocity, and dis-
tribution of sand clusters of particles in size of 65, 100,
and 150 mm in the labyrinth channel were measured by
CFD-DEM coupling approach. The results were con-
firmed by the trajectories and velocity of single grain of
sand through PTV. The conclusions are as follows:
1. Tiny sands had small amplitude between tooth
tips. They moved basically in the main stream.
Their velocity was fast. The travel distance and
time were short. Particles were mainly influ-
enced by drag forces. The total force was small,
thereby having better following performance.
With the increase in particle sizes, the amplitude
between tooth tips enlarged. The velocity
decreased but the frequency of change was
raised. The travel distance and time rose.
10
Sediments easily entered vortex areas from the
main stream. The inertial force gradually built
up. So the total force increased. As a result, the
following performance turned to be bad.
2. The smaller the particle sizes, the shorter time it
took to reach micro-dynamic balance. Thus, the
amount of sediments in the labyrinth channel was
less. For particles in size of 150 mm, sands staying
longer than 0.1 s in the channel accounted for
37.9% of total sediments. Particles not involved
in circulation merely accounted for 0.84% of total
sands. Therefore, it is necessary to have filters or
even to have multi-stage filtration system to
reduce the entering of larger particles which are
more than 100 mm into the labyrinth channel.
3. Sand groups were mainly located at the inlet of
the labyrinth channel. Meanwhile, they showed
certain randomness. A large number of sands
were trapped in vortex areas. Collisions among
particles used kinetic energy, making sands
unable to escape from vortex areas, which even-
tually led to precipitation and emitter clogging.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article: This work was supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Nos 51379024 and
51769009).
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