How much water does a drain tile remove?
By Vinayak Shedekar, The Ohio State University
Have you ever wondered how much water a drain tile removes? Does a larger outlet pipe drain a field faster? Are there differences in drain pipes that would affect the amount of drainage? Let’s explore some of these questions.
Does drainage water always flow downhill? Drainage theory seems simple: water flows downhill! In other words, gravity plays a major role in driving the movement of drainage water from one location to another. However, the actual flow lines of drainage water leading to lateral pipes are not straight lines. Because the actual opening on a drain pipe is much smaller than the 4-inch diameter, the flow lines converge radially around the drain pipe. So in reality, it may look like the water is moving up in the soil profile against gravity.
