Design and Simulation of Banana Pseudo-stem Fibre Extracting Raspador (Cylinder) Using FEA Technique

Abstract

ABSTRACT Development of mechanical fiber extractors without considering engineering knowledge can cause failures of the machine’s components during operations. Therefore, the present study was conducted to examine the structural strength of the banana pseudo-stem fiber-extracting raspador using finite element analysis. For measuring the force required to extract the fibers, a measuring setup along with an embedded system was developed using the ATmega328P microcontroller, DYMH-103 load cell, and 24-Bit ATD converter, and it was found that an average of 99.09 N force was required to scratch the fibers from single pseudo-stem sheath. Three computer-aided design (CAD) models of raspador having tip angles of blades of 25°, 35°, and 45° were developed in the Creo-Parametric software and simulated in the Ansys® software using three material properties, i.e. high-carbon steel, medium-carbon steel, and low-carbon steel. The results of both static structural analysis and explicit dynamics simulation analysis suggested that the CAD model with 45° tip angle of blade having low-carbon steel has a higher value of total deformation and maximum principal stress and a comparatively lower value of equivalent elastic strain than other models and under the yield limit of the parent material. Hence, it may be used for the development of a prototype of a banana pseudo-stem fiber-extracting machine.