Determination of the peak force of a potato tuber at the rod collision by means of finite element analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT Potato is exposed to different types of impact loads during harvest, sorting, and transportation. The large impact force between potato and rod-shaped machinery parts causes the potato damage and brings economic losses for the food industry. To obtain the impact force and its influencing laws between potato and rod, both theoretical analysis and finite element analysis (FEA) were used. By defining the impact force coefficient (K), a mechanical model between the impact peak force ( F max ), potato mass (m), and drop height (h) was established. The FEA virtual experiments showed that F max was increased linearly with the increase in m, h, and m h . When the potato mass was from 0.2 kg to 0.35 kg and the drop height was from 0.2 m to 0.3 m, the regression equation between F max and m h had a similar structure to the mechanical model, which verified the theoretical analysis and allowed the assessment of potato impact force. The results of this article can contribute to predicting the impact force of potato and solving other problems of solid-like agricultural materials related to impact.