A novel rigid wheel for agricultural machinery applicable to paddy field with muddy soil

Abstract

The working performance of agricultural machinery is largely determined by the walking performance of the wheel when driving in complex unstructured soil. However, the driving performance of existing wheels is not satisfactory for paddy field with muddy soil. The purpose of the current study is therefore to propose a novel rigid wheel for agricultural machinery which is applicable to paddy field with muddy soil. Firstly, a novel arc edge shaped wheel was designed based on the principles of mechanics on the ground. Then the driving performance of this arc edge shaped wheel was evaluated using FE modeling of interaction between rigid wheel and soil. Finally, the structure originally designed arc edge shaped wheel was improved according to FE modeling results, and this improved design was further evaluated by both FE simulation and prototype experiments. Both FE modeling and experimental results indicate that the improved arc edge shaped wheel proposed in this study has a good driving performance with regarding to wheel sinkage and soil reaction force. The proposed arc edge shaped wheel could be used as an effective component of rice harvester for paddy field with muddy soil.