Analysis of the metering performance for typical shape maize seeds using DEM

Abstract

The irregular shape, varying internal compositions, and uneven distributions of maize seeds can degrade the metering performance of maize seeders. This study investigates the effect of irregular maize on the performance of a high-filling-rate seed metering device using DEM. The results show that the seed population in the seed box formed large and small cycles of seed transport due to the disturbances caused by the three wheels. The increasing angular speed of the three wheels reduced the rate of seed filling in the seed filling regions by gravity and disturbances. In addition, an analysis of the repose angle formed by the dropped seed indicated that the angular speed of the taking seed wheel has a certain effect. The large angular speed reduced the coefficient of variation of the seed drop location. The repose angle of the horse tooth seed was greater than those of the other. Meanwhile, the irregular maize seed can also reduce the coefficient of variation of the seed drop location. A comparison between the simulation and experiment results indicates the number of metering seed were basically the same.

Determination and analysis of basic physical and contact mechanics parameters of quinoa seeds by DEM

“…It has been widely used in farm machinery research for development in recent years [1] . Of these, Discrete Element Method (DEM) techniques are used for analyzing complex dynamic discontinuous mechanical discrete systems, which have demonstrated advantages in the study of agricultural materials [2] , including maize [3] , rice [4] , wheat [5] , potato [6] , flax [7] , cereals and canola [8] , and have been applied to practically most of the crops. In DEM, the agricultural material model can be established by spherical particle or spherical aggregation method.…”

“…The critical interaction properties are restoring forces, static and rolling friction, plastic or viscous damping, and adhesion [10] . There are two ways to obtain simulation parameters [2] , by the experimental procedure the first method gets parameters that are easy to measure, and the second method is obtained by simulation calibration for parameters that are more difficult to measure directly [11] .…”