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<br />, <br /> <br />enlarged by forcing the tapered shank into it. This formed a short <br />nipple protruding into the pipe, which was then threaded with the stand- <br />ard 3/8-in pipe tap built into the tool. The nipple was sufficiently <br />long for four to five full threads. The connection was completed by in- <br />stalling a gasket (made with room-temperature vulcanizing silicone <br />rubber in a plaster of paris mold) and washer, and screwing a threaded <br />tee-connector with barbed side arms into the threaded hole (as sho"TI). <br />Coating the rubber gasket with silicone caulking compound before it is <br />installed helped form a water-tight seal. After 8 months of operation, <br />only one leak (caused by a cracked silicone rubber washer) has developed <br />in the Tacna, Arizona, system. <br /> <br />A simpler technique, which eliminates the threaded fitting and <br />molded gasket, was used to install the system in Riverside. The hole <br />was cut and enlarged the same way as is shol'" in Fig. 2, except it was <br />not threaded and was located on a ridge instead of in a valley of the <br />corrugations. (Locating the hole on a ridge seems to distribute the <br />stress, caused by stretching, more uniformly around the nipple wall.) <br />With the nipple formed, the tool was withdrawn and the small diameter <br />polyethylene delivery hose was immediately inserted. The stretched <br />plp-stic shrinks around the hose forming a water-tight seal. After <br />several days, the force required to dislodge delivery tubes from lateral <br />pipes exceeded 5 kg (11 Ib). Confined by the backfill in the trench a~d <br />subjected to water pressure of no more than 30 kPa (5 psi), it is <br />unlikely that the hose will pullout of the pipe. After more than 4 <br />months of operation, no leaks have developed in the system at Riverside, <br />California. <br /> <br />At the Tacna site, the small diameter delivery hoses were laid in <br />trenches dug from each tree to the lateral trench. Making these trenches <br />was time-consuming and considerable hand labor was required to clean <br />them at their intersection with the lateral trench. This problem was <br />eliminated at the Riverside site by using a water jet to force a small <br />diameter pipe from the trunk of a tree to the lateral trench. By slip- <br />ping the delivery hose onto the barbed fitting at the end of this pipe <br />(Fig, 3), when the pipe was withdrawn the hose was drawn into the hole. <br />It was then a simple procedure to connect each delivery hose into the <br />corrugated lateral by the procedure described above. Figure 4 shows <br />hoses installed in a corrugated pipe, lying in a trench ready to be <br />backfilled. <br /> <br />A simple procedure to determine the proper elevation of the supply <br />hose at each tree to provide equal flow rate is as follows. First, by <br />standing water at a fixed static head in the lateral, a reference level <br />can be found and marked on each tree by lowering each supply hose until <br />the water level stands at its opening. During the procedure, all other <br />hoses should be kept elevated above this level so that water does not <br />flow from them, causing a pressure head gradient within the lateral. <br />All subsequent elevation measurements are made relative to this refer- <br />ence elevation. <br /> <br />The second step is to estimate the head loss that will occur within <br />the lateral between each pair of hose connections when t~~~~4fs <br /> <br />-4- <br />