Impact of Elastic Diaphragm Hardness and Structural Parameters on the Hydraulic Performance of Automatic Flushing Valve

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear authors,

The work is interesting and well organized. Some reviews are anyway needed. In the following, I report some general comments, then you can find attached a pdf file containing point-by-point comments.

General comments:

1)It is not completely clear in the abstract if the core of the paper is the methodology used or the results achieved about valve performances (like the actual geometry you found that is more effective for the application)

2) For the sake of clarity avoid long sentences such as those in lines: 38-41,63-67,102-107. In general an english review is needed.

3) The results are interesting, but seems precisely scoped to an industrial optimization process and hardly applicable to more general cases.

4) The effectiveness of flushing is also function of the flow rate that the automatic valve is able to convey. Can you add a comment on this point?

5) Bibliography can be improved with more internationally sound items and trying to avoid papers that do not use english or that are very difficult to find like master thesis.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Response to editor’s comments:

Response to Editor-in-Chief’s comments:

Dear editor-in-Chief,

We thank you for your and the reviewers’ work on the manuscript (Water-2081286). The entire manuscript has been edited according to the editor's and the reviewers' comments. We revised the manuscript carefully.

Best regards.

Sincerely,

Yan Mo

2023/01/05

Response to reviewers’ comments:

Reviewer 1

Thanks for the suggestions. Now the manuscript has been revised.

Response to general comments:

1、It is not completely clear in the abstract if the core of the paper is the methodology used or the results achieved about valve performances (like the actual geometry you found that is more effective for the application)

Thanks. (1) We have changed the title of “Analysis of the influence of structural parameters on the hydraulic performance of the automatic flushing valve” to “Impact of elastic diaphragm hardness and structural parameters on the hydraulic performance of automatic flushing valve” to make it more clear.

(2) The core of this paper includes the establishment of the hydraulic performance optimization method of the AFV and the determination of the optimal parameter combination. In this paper, the parameter combinations of H_amin minimum and FD_max maximum are obtained by range analysis. And establish two ternary nonlinear mathematical regression models of Hamin and FDmax with three structural parameters, which can be used to quickly predict the optimal combination of AFV parameters to satisfy the actual engineering required.

2、For the sake of clarity avoid long sentences such as those in lines: 38-41,63-67,102-107. In general an english review is needed.

Thanks. We have rewritten the sentences in lines: 40-43, 66-70, and 106-112 in the clean, updated copy. We invited the American Journal Experts translation agency to polish the paper. They suggested splitting the long sentences into several short sentences.

3、The results are interesting, but seems precisely scoped to an industrial optimization process and hardly applicable to more general cases.

Thanks. The results were all done through laboratory experiments. According to the results, we determined the order and significance of the parameters affecting the hydraulic performance of AFV and established two ternary nonlinear mathematical regression models of H_amin and FD_max with three structural parameters. These research results can provide guidance for scientific research institutions or production enterprises to develop AFV.

4、The effectiveness of flushing is also function of the flow rate that the automatic valve is able to convey. Can you add a comment on this point?

Thanks. This paper was mainly to solve the problem of the existing AFV products H_amin was too large and FD_max was too small. The flow rate is also a very important factor in the effectiveness of flushing. But the flushing flow rate is mainly affected by the inlet pressure of the AFV, and has little correlation with the elastic diaphragm hardness (E), ascending channel offset distance (D), and drain width (W) studied in this paper.

5、Bibliography can be improved with more internationally sound items and trying to avoid papers that do not use english or that are very difficult to find like master thesis.

Thanks. Thank you for your reminder, we will pay attention to the changes in future articles. Because there are few studies on AFV, we cited two master’s theses and three Chinese bibliographies in this paper.

Response to specific comments:

1、Line 22. The range of FD and Hamin are not in accordance with the values indicated below for the final model. “0,022Mpa and 116s”

Thanks. The range of the H_amin from 0.026 to 0.082 MPa and the FD_max from 36.3 to 95.7 s were the results of our orthogonal experimental design. The result of “0,022Mpa and 116s” was the result of the optimal combination obtained by the range analysis based on the orthogonal experimental results. We have changed “two combinations” to “two new combinations” to make it more clear in line 27 in the clean, updated copy. And we have added the combinations of “(E=40 HA, D=0 mm, W=2 mm)” and “(E=40 HA, D=2 mm, W=1.68 mm)” to make it more clear in lines 28-29.

2、Line 40-41. Shorter sentences are preferable.

Thanks. We have rewritten the sentence to make it shorter in lines 40-42 in the clean, updated copy.

3、Line 111. “is consist” need English review

Thanks. We have changed “is consist” to “is mainly consisting” in line 115 in the clean, updated copy.

4、Line 111. More than four parts are listed below

Thanks. We have deleted “four parts” in line 115 in the clean, updated copy.

5、Line 116. “Figure 1a): 1)” need review

Thanks. We have deleted “1) and 2)”. And we have added “firstly” and “secondly” to make it more clear in lines 120-122 in the clean, updated copy.

6、Line 123. “the vertical direction of the water in the upper cavity” is not clear

Thanks. We have rewritten the sentence “As the amount of water in the upper cavity gradually increases, the elastic diaphragm gradually moves downwards under the resultant force in the vertical direction (F_y) (Equation (4)). F_y is composed of the upper cavity water pressure (F_1y) (Equation (1)), the lower cavity water pressure (F_2y) (Equation (2)), and the elastic force of the elastic diaphragm (F_3y) (Equation (3)).” in line 124-128 in the clean, updated copy.

7、Line 125-127. “Since the combined vertical downwards force (Fy) (Equation (4)) is greater than zero, the inlet pressure at the beginning of flushing for the AFV to automatically close is Ha, calculated in Equation (5).” Not clear

Thanks. We have rewritten the sentences “Since the F_y is greater than zero, the H_a (inlet pressure at the beginning of flushing for the AFV to automatically close) can be calculated in Equation (5).” in lines 128-129 to make it more clear in the clean, updated copy.

8、Line 137. “in the horizontal direction” on the horizontal plane?

Thanks. We have changed “in the horizontal direction” to “on the horizontal plane” in lines 139-140, 321, and the nomenclature in the clean, updated copy.

9、Line 138-139. “E is the hardness of the 138 elastic diaphragm (2) (HA).” Repetition

Thanks. We have deleted the sentence in the clean, updated copy.

10、Line 142. “the air compression coefficient in the cavity is 0.9999” not clear

Thanks. We have deleted the sentence “the air compression coefficient in the cavity is 0.9999”. And we have rewritten the sentences in lines 141-146 in the clean, updated copy.

11、Line 146. “C_w is the water storage volume of the AFV body” repetition

Thanks. We have deleted the sentence “C_w is the water storage volume of the AFV body” in the clean, updated copy.

12、Line 167. “Mo et al” review reference

Thanks. We have deleted the sentence “Mo et al” to make it more clear in the clean, updated copy. And we have rewritten the sentences in lines 162-164 in the clean, updated copy.

13、Table 1. “H_A” use international units

Thanks. We have changed “H_A” to “HA” in this paper. And we have added the equipment and parameters for measuring Shore hardness in lines 170-172 in the clean, updated copy. The physical diagram of the Shore durometer is as follows.

14、Line 196. “and the stopwatch began to time” timer starts?

Thanks. We have changed “and the stopwatch began to time” to “and the timer started” in line 190 in the clean, updated copy.

15、Line 199. “at which time” English review

Thanks. We have changed “at which time” to “at this point” in lines 192-193 in the clean, updated copy.

16、Line 215. “the magenta sphere represents FDmax” The diameter of the sphere is proportional to the value of FD and Hamin?

Thanks. We have changed “The size of the sphere or circle represents the numerical size of H_amin (a) or FD_max (b)” to “The diameter of the sphere or circle is proportional to the value of H_amin (a) or FD_max (b)” in line 220 in the clean, updated copy.

17、Line 265. “smaller the pressure” review english

Thanks. We have changed “the smaller the pressure the drip irrigation system pump needs to provide to the AFV” to “the less pressure is required for the pump of the drip irrigation system” in lines 271-272 in the clean, updated copy.

18、Line 309. “m when T is certain (Equation (8))” I did not find equation (8).

Thanks. We have changed “(Equation (8))” to “(see Section 3.4)” in line 316 in the clean, updated copy. The sentence “m when T is certain (see Section 3.4)” refers to the equation of “T = FD/m” in line 265 in the clean, updated copy.

19、Line 324-325. “q decreases with D, resulting in FD decreasing with D” If q decreases the FD should increase...more time is needed to fill the volume Cb.

Thanks. We have changed “q decreases with D, resulting in FD decreasing with D” to “q decreases as D increases, resulting in FD increases as D increases” to make it more clear in lines 331-332 in the clean, updated copy.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

This manuscript presents a method to reduce H_amin and increase FD_max, which are two important performance indexes of automatic flushing valve. The paper is interesting and innovative. However, this manuscript also has some problems:

1. Line 71. Add the city where NaanDanJain Irrigation, Ltd. is located.

2. The calculation method and evaluation method of RMSE and nRMSE should be added.

3. Statistical treatment and software used for carrying out the correlations are both missed in Materials and methods.

4. Lines 111-127. It is recommended to remove the number after each component in the text, such as (1), (2), (3), and so on. Because they are already shown in Figure 1. It is recommended to check the full text and delete similar numerical numbers.

5. Line 186. “23±2 °C” should change to “(23±2) ℃”.

6. Line 209-211, Table 2. Use proper number of decimal positions.

7. Line 244. Change “maximum flushing time (FD_max)” to “maximum flushing duration (FD_max)”.

8. There are terms not included in the Nomenclature (e.g., “h_f” in line 299).

Author Response

Response to editor’s comments:

Response to Editor-in-Chief’s comments:

Dear editor-in-Chief,

We thank you for your and the reviewers’ work on the manuscript (Water-2081286). The entire manuscript has been edited according to the editor's and the reviewers' comments. We revised the manuscript carefully.

Best regards.

Sincerely,

Yan Mo

2023/01/05

Response to reviewers’ comments:

Reviewer 2

Thanks for the suggestions.

1、Line 71. Add the city where NaanDanJain Irrigation, Ltd. is located.

Thanks. We have added the city name in line 75 in the clean, updated copy.

2、The calculation method and evaluation method of RMSE and nRMSE should be added.

Thanks. We have added the calculation method and evaluation method of RMSE and nRMSE in lines 208-213 in the clean, updated copy.

3、Statistical treatment and software used for carrying out the correlations are both missed in Materials and methods.

Thanks. We have added the section of “2.3 Data analysis” in lines 201-213 in the clean, updated copy.

4、Lines 111-127. It is recommended to remove the number after each component in the text, such as (1), (2), (3), and so on. Because they are already shown in Figure 1. It is recommended to check the full text and delete similar numerical numbers.

Thanks. We have deleted all the numbers after each component in lines 115-124, 135-141, and 185-188 in the clean, updated copy.

5、Line 186. “23±2 °C” should change to “(23±2) ℃”.

Thanks. We have changed “23±2 °C” to “(23±2) ℃” in line 181 in the clean, updated copy.

6、Line 209-211, Table 2. Use proper number of decimal positions.

Thanks. We have revised the number of decimal positions in line 216 in the clean, updated copy.

7、Line 244. Change “maximum flushing time (FD_max)” to “maximum flushing duration (FD_max)”.

Thanks. We have changed “maximum flushing time (FD_max)” to “maximum flushing duration (FD_max)” in line 251 in the clean, updated copy.

8、There are terms not included in the Nomenclature (e.g., “h_f” in line 299).

Thanks. We have added the term “h_f” in the nomenclature.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx