Design And Experiment of Axial Air-Suction Drum Seed-Metering Device

Abstract

This study developed an axial air-suction drum seed-metering device without a special vacuum pump and associated pipeline facilities, greatly simplifying the structure of the air-suction drum seed-metering device, which aimed to solve the problems of complex structure and difficult maintenance of traditional air suction drum seed-metering device. The geometric model of the seed-metering device was established by SOLIDWORKS. In addition, numerical simulation tests were carried out on the seed-metering device based on CFD to verify the feasibility of the theoretical operation of the seed-metering device. The seed-metering device was processed and a test bench was built for physical testing, which verified the feasibility of the actual operation of the seed-metering device. The bench test results showed that when the fan speed reached 2100 rpm, the adsorption rate of the seed-metering device on tomato seeds, pepper seeds, and eggplant seeds reached more than 86.39%,87.22%, and 93.06%, respectively. Besides, when the fan speed reached 2400 rpm, the adsorption rate of the seed-metering device on tomato seeds, hot pepper seeds, and eggplant seeds all reached more than 95%, which demonstrated that the seed-metering device has good seed suction performance despite its straightforward design.