DISCRETE ELEMENT-BASED DESIGN OF KEY PARAMETERS FOR WHEEL RUT TILLAGE DEVICES

In this study, a device was designed for tillage of compacted soil in wheel ruts formed by the repeated passage of agricultural machines.[Ed1] Soil parameters were measured, and then the wheel rut tillage device was divided into two parts, the soil lifting unit and the soil breaking unit, for separate simulation tests to study the tillage process. EDEM[Ed2] simulations were applied to the soil lifting device to compare and analyze the microscopic movement of the simulated soil particles and the operational resistance of the device. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed using Design-Expert10 [Ed3] software to obtain the optimum combination of parameters of 125 mm device offset distance, 43.6° entry angle and 28° lifting angle. A full-factor test was conducted on the soil crushing device using EDEM coupled with RecuDyn multi-body system dynamics simulation software. The number of bond breaks and the traction resistance of the soil crushing device were used as the test indicators, and the optimum parameters were obtained for a soil crushing knife blade thickness of 6 mm and a cutting edge angle of 30° for the largest number of bond breaks and least traction resistance. The results of this study will provide technical support for the reduction of compaction zones in wheel ruts after tire travel on agricultural machinery in real time.