Coupled Bionic Design Based on Primnoa Mouthpart to Improve the Performance of a Straw Returning Machine

Jiale Zhao,Yajun Yu,Xiaogeng Wang,Huili Liu,Jian Zhuang,Yijia Wang

doi:10.3390/agriculture11080775

Jiale Zhao, Yajun Yu + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11080775

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Abstract

The high energy consumption and low crushing length qualification rate of traditional straw returning machines in the main maize-growing regions of northeast China make it difficult to promote straw returning operations in the region. The primnoa locust mouthpart is extremely efficient in cutting maize rootstocks. In this paper, it was found that there are significant differences between the primnoa locust mouthpart and the conventional machine, these exist mainly in the cutting edge structure and cutting motion. Thus, this paper develops a coupled bionic design for structural and kinematic coupling elements to develop a bionic straw returning machine. This paper found that the operating performance of the bionic straw returning machine was mainly affected by the blade rotation radius and the output rotation speed of the drive mechanism through DEM (discrete element method) simulation, and the optimal combination of the two parameters was 248 mm rotation radius and 930 r/min output rotation speed. Finally, this paper finds that the most obvious operational performance difference of the bionic straw returning machine compared with the traditional straw returning machine is that it can reduce the cutting power consumption by 9.4–11.7% and improve the crushing length qualification rate by 10.4–14.7% through the operational performance comparison test. Based on the above findings, this paper suggests that in future research and development of straw returning machines, more attention can be focused on finding suitable bionic prototypes and improving bionic design methods.

Highlights

The soil type in the maize-growing region of northeastern China is a very rare cold black soil [1,2], which forms at a rate of 1 cm/400 years [3,4] and is a precious resource common to all mankind [5]
The findings of this paper showed that the bionic straw returning machine can improve the straw crushing length qualification rate by 10.4–14.7% and reduce the straw cutting energy consumption by 9.4–11.7% compared with the traditional straw returning
We found that the efficient gnawing ability of the primnoas on maize rootstocks was due to the segmented serrated structure of their mouthparts and the isokinetic reverse rotational movement

Summary

Introduction

The soil type in the maize-growing region of northeastern China is a very rare cold black soil [1,2], which forms at a rate of 1 cm/400 years [3,4] and is a precious resource common to all mankind [5]. The rate of black soil erosion has reached 1 cm/year due to the difficulty of promoting straw returning operations in the region [6,7]. Maize rootstocks are extremely thick and high in water content after maturity [14,15], resulting in extremely high power consumption [10,11] and low qualification rate of crushing length during the operation of traditional straw returning machines [12]. Related studies have shown that, compared to other maize-growing regions in China, traditional machines will improve the operational power consumption by 6–10% when operating in the maize-growing regions of northeast China [10,11,16], and the crushing length qualification rate will be reduced by 3–5% [12,17]. If a brand-new machine with efficient cutting capacity can be developed, it can significantly enhance the progress of straw returning in the region

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