Optimizing soil resistance and disturbance of bionic furrow opener for paddy field based on badger claw using the CFD-DEM method

Abstract

Paddy field fertilizer banding requires the use of high-performance soil furrow openers. The bionic design method has been identified as an effective approach to obtain desired results of a soil-engaging tool. This study utilized this approach in designing a bionic furrow opener for fertilization in paddy fields. The bionic furrow opener was designed based on the main physical characteristics of the North American badger claws, with the fitted curve of the badger claw enlarged eight times. A paddy field soil-opener interaction model was developed to evaluate the performance of different design alternatives with various combinations of curvature radii (R) and width (W_o). The opener performance (including soil resistance, soil disturbance characteristics, and time for completing soil backfilling) of the different design alternatives was monitored in simulations and analyzed. Results showed that the designed bionic furrow opener achieved the best performance with a combination of R and W_o being 25 mm and 30 mm, respectively. Force measurement experiments and soil disturbance measurement experiments were conducted in field and laboratory conditions, respectively to validate the soil-opener interaction model and the performance of optimized opener. The validation results showed relative errors of 16.64 % and 13.9 % for horizontal soil resistance force and vertical soil resistance respectively, 4.62 % for soil disturbance width, and 11.64 % for soil backfilling height between the experiment and simulation. These findings provide a theoretical foundation to enhance working efficiency and optimized design of furrow openers for fertilizer application in paddy fields, thereby contributing to improved agricultural productivity in rice cultivation.