Design and Simulation of a Combined Trencher for Transverse Sugarcane Planter
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Agronomic Requirements and Challenges for Transverse Sowing of Cane Seeds
- If the formed furrow bottom is not a rectangular plane but a V-shaped cross-section, cane seeds would collide with the soil when they fall into the furrow. The orientation of cane seeds may change and become suspended in the furrow, causing a small effective planting depth, as shown in Figure 3a.
- Due to the insufficient height of furrowing plow, a large amount of floating soil flows back, resulting in a large difference between the furrow depth and the effective planting depth. Moreover, there is a large amount of agglomerated soil in the middle of the double rotary tillage gearbox due to missed tillage, as shown in Figure 3b.
- When dealing with compacted clay, the trenching resistance and machine power consumption are too high. This in turn causes the problem of breakage of the support base such as plow handles or rotary blade handles, affecting the continuous reliability of the planter’s operation and the quality consistency of furrows.
2.2. Working Principle of Combined Trencher
2.2.1. Overall Structural Configuration
- (1)
- The front leak-proof plow breaks and lifts the leaked soil between the two chain gearboxes, and then guides the soil to both sides.
- (2)
- The double-disc rotary tiller and fender utilize rotary milling to cut deeper, rapidly breaking up the soil and throwing it up from the furrow, and then rebounding to the side ridges after collision with the fender. The front rotary tillage link improves the quality of soil tillage and helps reduce the forward resistance of subsequent trenching.
- (3)
- The rear furrowing plow lifts the broken soil materials along the plow surface and directs them to the side, and then uses the side guards to prevent soil from backflowing. The furrow cleared in this way cooperates with the built-in seeding opening to form a dynamic seeding space.
- (4)
- The cantilever-type movable frame that can be adjusted by dual hydraulic cylinders on the one hand transmits rotary tillage power internally, and on the other hand controls the relative position and cutting angle of the furrowing plow to the ground. The corresponding trencher assembly of the planter manufactured is shown in Figure 4b.
2.2.2. Principle of Seeding Space Formation through Trenching
2.3. Structural Design and Motion Control of Key Components
2.3.1. Design Parameters of the Leak-Proof Plow
2.3.2. Design Parameters of Core-Share Furrowing Plow
2.3.3. Parameter Design of Rotary Tillage with Fender
2.3.4. Motion Control of Double Rocker Arms
2.4. Simulation of Trenching Process
2.4.1. Establishment of EDEM Model
2.4.2. Setup for Virtual Tests
2.5. Field Experiments
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Analysis of the Simulated Trenching Process
3.2. Analysis of the Simulated Trenching Resistance
3.3. Optimization of Furrowing Plow Parameters
3.4. Validation Analysis of Field Experiments
4. Conclusions
- (1)
- A combined trencher structure was designed to address the issues of insufficient effective planting depth, soil backflow encroaching on the seeding space, excessive trenching resistance, and power consumption. The purpose is to effectively improve the stability and efficiency of trenching performance in the agronomic practice of the horizontal planting of sugarcane seeds. This machine and tool comprehensively utilized the soil lifting of the leak-proof plow, the soil fragmentation and throwing of the double-disc rotary tiller, the rebound of the fender, the lateral diversion of the furrowing plow, and the motion control of the double rocker arms. The working principle of trenching was proposed by using double-sided guards to block soil backfilling to form seeding space, and reducing the particle size and quantity of soil that could be acted upon in front of the plow face to reduce forward resistance.
- (2)
- The simulated trenching process showed that the designed rotary tiller had strong particle throwing and transfer capabilities to break bonds between particles. The dynamic seeding space was available during the gradual advancement process combined with the cooperation of the furrowing plow. The distribution of stress on the forward plow surface of the furrowing plow was analyzed. It was found that as the configuration distance between the rotary cultivator and the furrowing plow increased, the simulated trenching resistance and blade cutting resistance increased and decreased, respectively. Based on this, L was determined to be an estimated 83.8 cm. In addition, the cutting resistance decreased as the number of blades in the unit sub-area increases. The blade arrangement in Mode-2 with a quarter soil cutting pitch showed the smallest resistance and rotary tillage energy consumption.
- (3)
- The parameters of furrowing plow optimized to minimize trenching resistance were a soil penetration angle of 20°, an oblique cutting angle of 75°, and a curvature radius of 280 mm. Based on such a structural configuration, the soil-engaging trajectory of the trencher, the length and width of the accessible seeding space, and the average planting depth of sugarcane seeds could all reach their respective design expectations. The measured trenching resistance value was 7609.7 N, which had an error of 22.2% from the predicted value under the same configuration.
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
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Property Type | Parameters | Values |
---|---|---|
Soil particles | Density (kg·m−3) | 1786 |
Poisson’s ratio | 0.46 | |
Shear modulus (MPa) | 1.0 | |
Recovery coefficient | 0.63 | |
Static friction coefficient | 0.91 | |
Dynamic friction coefficient | 0.07 | |
JKR surface energy (J·m−2) | 5.59 | |
Soil particle-65 Mn steel | Recovery coefficient | 0.56 |
Static friction coefficient | 0.71 | |
Dynamic friction coefficient | 0.10 |
Test Factors | Level-1 | Level-2 | Level-3 |
---|---|---|---|
Soil penetration angle, α (°) | 20 | 25 | 30 |
Oblique cutting angle, β (°) | 65 | 70 | 75 |
Curvature radius, Rc (mm) | 245 | 262.5 | 280 |
Trial No. | α | γ | Rc | F (N) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6026.67 | |
2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6078.74 | |
3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5916.68 | |
4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6048.92 | |
5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5952.03 | |
6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 6216.90 | |
7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 6148.45 | |
8 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6238.90 | |
9 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 6260.50 | |
F | 6007.36 | 6074.68 | 6160.82 | ||
6072.62 | 6089.89 | 6129.39 | |||
6215.95 | 6131.36 | 6005.72 | |||
R | 208.59 | 56.68 | 155.10 |
Source | DF | Sum of Squares | Mean Square | F-Value | p-Value | Sig |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
α | 2 | 20,763.9 | 10,382.0 | 275.49 | 0.004 | ** |
γ | 2 | 235.7 | 117.9 | 3.13 | 0.242 | |
Rc | 2 | 6140.9 | 3070.4 | 81.48 | 0.012 | * |
Error | 2 | 75.4 | 37.7 | |||
Total | 8 | 27,215.9 |
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Zhang, B.; Yang, X.; Zhu, Y. Design and Simulation of a Combined Trencher for Transverse Sugarcane Planter. Agriculture 2024, 14, 1416. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14081416
Zhang B, Yang X, Zhu Y. Design and Simulation of a Combined Trencher for Transverse Sugarcane Planter. Agriculture. 2024; 14(8):1416. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14081416
Chicago/Turabian StyleZhang, Biao, Xinsan Yang, and Yingying Zhu. 2024. "Design and Simulation of a Combined Trencher for Transverse Sugarcane Planter" Agriculture 14, no. 8: 1416. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14081416