Abstract
Analyses of subsurface drainage effects of farmland with respect to pipe and envelop material are made by the laboratory experiments using soil box to give basic information for the subsurface drainage system planning and design. Three different diameter PVC perforated pipes and a mesh pipe are used with envelop materials such as sand, rice bran, and crushed stone. Steady state subsurface drainage flow rate increased as envelop material changed from sand to rice bran and crushed stone. This indicates that as the hydraulic conductivity of the envelop material increases, the drainage flow rate increases. On the other hand, for a given envelop material, the mesh pipe which has the largest openning area shows the largest flow rate while small diameter PVC pipes show small flow rates. This tells that as the openning area and pipe diameter increase, the flow rate increases, too. Therefore, selection of pipe and envelop material should be made in accordance with the design drainage flow rate. Unsteady state subsurface drainage flow rate with respect to time differs for different envelop material. In case the sand was used as an envelop material, the small diameter PVC pipes show larger flow rates than the large diameter PVC pipe and mesh pipe. When the rice bran was used, the mesh pipe shows the largest flow rate, while small diameter pipes show smaller flow rates. In case the crushed stone was used as an envelop material, the large diameter PVC pipe and mesh pipe show larger flow rates, while small diameter pipes show a little bit smaller flow rates. However, the variation of flow rates among different pipes is the smallest when the crushed stone is used. The flow rate curve with respect to the pipe changes little for the crushed stone envelop which has a large hydraulic conductivity, while that changes much for the sand and rice bran envelops. However, it is difficult to draw a consistent relationship between the drainage flow rate and pipe for all the envelop materials. Since the subsurface drainage experiments are made only under the restricted laboratory condition in this study, further study including field experiment is required.