Abstract
Remarkable geometrical similarities are found in digging claws of soil burrowing animals, in spite of the fact that they evolved independently. Based on convergent evolution theory, this study innovatively proposed a bionic engineering perspective that focuses on general and analogous geometrical characteristics of soil animals. It was observed that soil animals with powerful burrowing ability have analogous serrated structures on their digging claws. Taking soil imprinting toothed wheel as the research object, the hypothesis that special serrated structures have the potential of reducing penetrating resistance from soil and enhancing digging efficiency for soil engaging component was investigated. The convergent evolution inspired bionic serrated structures were utilized for the design of cutting edge on toothed wheel. Then, a toothed wheel that mounted with the conventional tooth and a bionic tooth were manufactured and tested in the soil bin. Results showed that special bionic serrated structure could reduce the required draft force for toothed wheel; meanwhile increase the depth and volume of prepared micro-basin. It was found that the soil-penetrating mechanism of the bionic toothed wheel behaved as saw cutting that similar to the digging behavior of soil burrowing animals. Geometry of serrated structure has the ability to maximum stress concentrations in soil, thus increased the tendency of soil material to fail. These results indicate that the convergent evolution inspired bionic approach is novel and advantageous for the design of new soil engaging implements for working quality optimization and forward resistance reduction. Keywords: convergent evolution, bionic serrated structure, soil imprinting, soil-engaging component, bionic agricultural machinery DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20191204.3638 Citation: Zhang Z H, Li Y, Tong J, Carr S. Convergent evolution inspired serrated structure for improving efficiency of soil imprinting and its mechanism investigation. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2019; 12(4): 16–26.
Highlights
Soil imprinting is an efficient approach of in-situ water harvesting for farming systems[1], it is an tillage operation that numerous geometrically ordered micro-basins (Figure 1a) are formed on the soil surface to collect and hold water in place during rainfall, and allowing it to infiltrate the soil[2,3,4]
3.1 Effects of bionic serrated structures on forward resistance At the operating load of 250 N, results showed that the toothed wheel with Bionic tooth 1 (BT1), bionic tooth 2 (BT2), and bionic tooth 3 (BT3) reduced the forward resistance by 2.41%, 6.52%, and 7.82%, respectively, as compared with conventional tooth (CT)
The lowest forward resistance was recorded by the toothed wheel with BT3, forward resistance of BT2 is slightly higher than BT3, while the highest forward resistance was recorded by BT1
Summary
Soil imprinting is an efficient approach of in-situ water harvesting for farming systems[1], it is an tillage operation that numerous geometrically ordered micro-basins (Figure 1a) are formed on the soil surface to collect and hold water in place during rainfall, and allowing it to infiltrate the soil[2,3,4]. The efficiency of soil imprinting is measured by the quality of the prepared micro-basin, as well as the toothed wheel forward resistance against the soil. To ensure applicability, workability, and effectiveness of soil imprinting, micro-basins shape and capacity should be adapted to secure the satisfactory volume to achieve a superior run-off collecting performance[10]. To solve these problems, effective drug force reduction technique for toothed wheel should be researched
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