Modeling gypsifereous soil infiltration rate under different sprinkler application rates and successive irrigation events

•Sprinkler drop size-range was decreased with increasing application rate.•Sprinkler with high application rate had lower kinetic energy and high specific power.•Soil infiltration rate was significantly decreased with increasing gypsum content and sprinkler application rate.•A successive irrigation event after the first irrigation does not affect the soil infiltration rate.•A simple empirical model based on the Kostiakov equation was developed to predict soil infiltration rate.

The marked reduction in infiltration rate caused by formation of a soil seal due to water droplets impact on gypsifereous soil surface is a well-known phenomenon, but is rarely considered in infiltration models, especially under center-pivot irrigation systems. A simple empirical model based on the Kostiakov equation was developed. The model was applied to center-pivot irrigation system for soils with different gypsum contents [60.0 (G1), 137.6 (G2), 275.2 (G3), 314.2 (G4), and 486.0 (G5) g kg−1] under two sprinkler application rates (84.6 mm h−1 for R3000 red-plate sprinkler and 47.3 mm h−1 for R3000 orange-plate sprinkler) and eight successive irrigation events. The impacts of sprinkler droplets kinetic energy as well as specific power on soil surface sealing were evaluated also. A good agreement (P < 0.05) between the measured and predicted infiltration rate values was obtained.