Multi-nozzle Rotary Sprinkler with Concentric Watering Rings
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional irrigation sprinklers waste water due to overlapping circular patterns, inefficient nozzle distribution, and non-uniform watering, leading to excess water usage and inflexibility in addressing complex landscape variations.
Innovation Solution
A rotary sprinkler system with multiple nozzles (8-12) configured to discharge water streams at different radial distances, forming concentric watering rings with adjustable nozzle diameters and orientations, allowing for precise and uniform watering by overlapping spray patterns minimally.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional sprinklers spray water in overlapping circular patterns, then the sprinklers can conform to complex landscape shapes, but excess water is deposited in overlapping areas resulting in 50% excess water usage
Solution Approach 1:
The single circular spray pattern is segmented into multiple concentric annular rings, each watered by a separate nozzle. This segmentation allows precise control over water distribution in different radial zones, eliminating the wasteful overlapping that occurs with conventional circular patterns while maintaining adaptability to complex landscape shapes through selective nozzle activation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically activates specific nozzles based on the required watering radius and landscape configuration. By selectively enabling or disabling nozzles at different radial distances, the system adapts to varying landscape shapes without creating excessive overlap, thereby reducing water waste while maintaining versatility.
2Device complexity
If conventional sprinklers use only a few nozzles, then the device complexity is reduced, but some nozzles spray fine mist close to the sprinkler causing evaporation and others must water large annular rings resulting in non-uniform watering
Solution Approach 1:
The watering task is segmented across multiple nozzles, each responsible for a specific annular ring. This distribution of function prevents any single nozzle from having to cover a large area, ensuring uniform water delivery. The segmentation also allows optimization of each nozzle's spray characteristics for its specific zone, reducing fine mist evaporation near the sprinkler.
Solution Approach 2:
Each nozzle is configured with specific properties (spray angle, pressure, orientation) optimized for its local annular zone. This local quality optimization ensures that each nozzle delivers water uniformly across its designated ring without creating excessive fine mist that would evaporate, while the varying nozzle characteristics compensate for the different distances from the center.
3Device complexity
If conventional sprinklers use nozzles that must water large annular rings, then the device complexity is reduced, but the watering is not uniform across the annular ring in the radial direction
Solution Approach 1:
The large annular ring watering task is segmented into multiple smaller annular zones, each handled by a dedicated nozzle. This segmentation transforms the problematic single-nozzle-large-area scenario into multiple nozzles covering smaller, manageable zones, achieving uniform water distribution across each annular ring while maintaining reasonable device complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system reduces water waste and improves watering uniformity by creating narrow, precise watering rings with reduced evaporation, accommodating varied landscape shapes effectively.
Implementation Method 1
The nozzles are configured to discharge water streams at substantially the same velocity, but to different radial distances from the nozzle head
Implementation Method 2
some nozzles spray a fine mist close to the sprinkler which results in water evaporation due to the small droplet size
Data Source
AI summary
A rotary sprinkler comprises a nozzle head and at least 8 nozzles supported by the nozzle head. The nozzles are configured to discharge water streams at substantially the same velocity, but to different radial distances from the nozzle head. Each water stream produces a spray pattern that overlaps at least one adjoining spray pattern.