As an emerging contaminant, the clogging substances of emitters in biogas slurry drip irrigation systems affect the efficient return and utilization of biogas slurry to the field to a great extent. This can be prevented using acid and chlorination as engineering measures. Through a hydraulic performance test and sampling detection and analysis, under the same acid addition conditions (pH = 5.5–6.0), three chlorine addition concentrations (0, 1–3, and 4–9 mg/L) and four chlorine addition cycles (6, 10, 14, and 20 days) were tested, aimed to clarify the influence of acid and chlorine addition parameters (chlorine adding cycle, chlorine adding concentration, etc.) on the anti-clogging performance of emitters in biogas slurry drip irrigation system. The results showed that compared with no acid and chlorination treatment (CK), only acid and a reasonable combination of acid and chlorination can significantly reduce the probability of serious and complete clogging of biogas slurry drip irrigation emitters, and they can stabilize the relative average flow of emitters by more than 75%. The measures of adding acid and chlorine change the distribution characteristics of clogging substances at the front and rear of the drip irrigation belt. Furthermore, they promote the migration of clogging substances to the rear of the drip irrigation belt, facilitating the clogging of emitters located thereat. The measures of acid addition and sequential addition of acid and chlorine significantly inhibit the growth of an extracellular polymer in the emitter, and the effect of inhibiting the increase in extracellular polymer concentrations is relatively poor when the acid addition period is excessively long or short. There exists a negative correlation between the extracellular polymer content in the emitter and the change in the emitter flow. Based on the obtained results, to ensure excellent anti-clogging performance of biogas slurry drip irrigation systems, for acid-only treatment measures, the acid dosing cycle is recommended to be 10 days. When acid and chlorination measures are implemented sequentially, the acid chlorination cycle is recommended to be 14 and 10 days when the chlorine concentration is 1–3 and 4–9 mg/L, respectively. This study has important scientific significance and practical value for the establishment of long-term operation management and protection technologies of large-scale biogas slurry drip irrigation systems.
Filters are essential components for maintaining the stability of drip irrigation systems, effectively reducing the risk of clogging. However, when applied to slurry drip irrigation systems, the complexity of slurry water quality makes it unclear how different filter types and their combinations affect the hydraulic performance of the system. This study provides a comprehensive performance evaluation of two common filter types and their combinations, considering various flow rates and biogas slurry-to-water ratios under drip irrigation conditions. The results revealed the following key findings: (1) In the application of biogas slurry drip irrigation, an increase in the concentration or flow rate of the slurry significantly affects the hydraulic performance of the filter, increasing the risk of clogging and shortening the operational lifespan. Notably, the impact of changes in slurry concentration on the hydraulic performance of the filter is much greater than that of the flow rate. Compared to mesh filters, disk filters offer better hydraulic performance, with the contaminant capacity of disk filters being approximately three times that of mesh filters. (2) In biogas slurry drip irrigation, the filter combination generally outperforms single filters in terms of hydraulic performance and contaminant removal capacity. Due to the unique nature of the water source in biogas slurry, a selection process for filter combinations was conducted. It was found that when a disk filter is used as the pre-filter and a mesh filter as the post-filter, the overall rate of head loss change is the smallest, and the clogging uniformity is the least. (3) In the entropy weight-TOPSIS comprehensive evaluation, the filter’s operating time and contaminant capacity are key factors affecting its overall performance. From the perspective of improving the operational stability of the biogas slurry drip irrigation system, it is recommended to use a disk filter + mesh filter combination. This study conducts practical measurements on the hydraulic performance, contaminant removal capacity, filtration accuracy, and other indicators of commonly used mesh and disk filters, aiming to provide useful references for the practical application of biogas slurry drip irrigation filters.
Accurate numerical simulation of turbulent flow within the milli-channels of drip irrigation emitters has long been a significant challenge. This paper presents a comprehensive Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) modeling-based analysis of the flow dynamics within the labyrinth milli-channel of a tooth-shaped emitter, with partial experimental validation. The objective was to assess the performances of four RANS turbulence models: RNG k-ε (RNG), Realizable k-ε (RKE), SST k-ω (SST), and baseline k-ω (BSL), alongside three near-wall treatments: scalable wall function (SWF), enhanced wall treatment (EWT), and y+-insensitive wall treatment (YIWT) for emitter flow analysis. The results showed that the RNG and RKE, coupled with EWT, are preferred options for predicting the flow rate—pressure loss relationship of the emitter, with relative errors of 2.08% and 1.02% in the discharge exponent and 5.66% and 7.58% in the flow rate coefficient, respectively. Although both RNG and RKE using SWF are viable for hydraulic performance prediction under high-flow rate conditions, the deviation of predicted flow rate reaches up to 25.46% under low-flow rate conditions. The SST and BSL models, which employ IYPT, captured induced vortices at channel corners; however, they underestimated emitter flow rates. Furthermore, computations using SWF failed to capture the asymptotic characteristics of flow parameters in the near-wall region, resulting in an overestimation of turbulent kinetic energy and turbulence intensity. Additionally, the magnitude of wall shear stress in the channel corners fell below the threshold required for self-cleaning, underscoring the necessity for optimizing channel structures to enhance the anti-clogging performance of the emitter.