Design And Experimental Study Of Potato Biomimetic Soil Cultivator

Cultivating soil is a necessary measure to ensure the growth of potatoes,which has a significant impact on potato yield.In this study,a biomimetic soil cultivator was designed for the problem that the soil cultivator has insufficient soil height and poor working performance.Based on the combination of discrete element simulation and digital earth tank test,the effects of biomimetic soil cultivator structure and motion parameters on soil height,working resistance and soil breaking rate were studied.The key working parameters were optimized to provide a basis for the design of the soil cultivator.The main research contents of this paper are as follows:(1)A biomimetic soil cultivator was designed.By analyzing the agronomic requirements of potato cultivation and the type of soil cultivator,a biomimetic soil cultivator that was suitable for single ridge double row planting mode was designed.The working principle of biomimetic soil cultivator was studied.Bionic design of wing plate and shovel breast of key soil-touching parts was carried out.The other devices such as the width adjuster were designed with reference to the agronomic requirements of the potato ridge.(2)EDEM simulation of biomimetic soil cultivator working process.The boundary model of biomimetic soil cultivator and soil particles with different structural parameters was constructed.The discrete element soil structure model was constructed by comparing the ridge parameters.The influence of key structure and motion parameters of biomimetic soil cultivator on soil height,working resistance and soil breaking rate were studied by EDEM.The single factor test results show that: 1)The level of each factor basically meets the requirement of soil height;2)The working resistance increases with the increase of forward speed and angle of blade edge,and decreases first and then increases with the increase of convex hull radius,ratio of height to diameter and convex hull spacing;3)The soil breaking rate decreases with the increase of forward speed,and increases with the increase of angle of the ridge,convex hull radius,convex hull spacing and ratio of height to diameter.(3)Structural parameters optimization and verification test of biomimetic soil cultivator.The orthogonal experiment was carried out with angle of the blade edge,convex hull radius and convex hull spacing.Mathematical models of three factors,working resistance and soil breaking rate were established.The test shows that the order of significant influence on working resistance from the largest to the smallest is angle of the blade edge,convex hull spacing and convex hull radius.The test shows that the order of significant influence on soil breaking rate from the largest to the smallest is convex hull radius,convex hull spacing and angle of the blade edge.The best parameters of biomimetic soil cultivator are angle of the blade edge of 26°,convex hull radius of 17.2mm and convex hull spacing of 28.5mm.It can be seen from the soil bin test that biomimetic soil cultivator meets the requirements of the soil height and shows better than the ordinary soil cultivator.The working resistance reduction rate is about 10.49%,and soil breaking rate is relatively increased by 9.64%.The relative error of simulation and soil bin test of soil height,working resistance and soil breaking rate were 6.18%,2.60% and 13.97%,respectively.