Energy Consumption of Sugarcane Basecutting Using Contra- Rotating Basecutters

Abstract

HighlightsThe objective of this study was to investigate the parameters of a new type of contra-rotating basecutter on the energy consumption during support cutting.Rotational speed of basecutting discs and feeding rate of sugarcane stalks had significant influence on the cutting energy consumption, while tilt angle of discs and blade number on each disc had no significant influence on it.The influencing order of the factors used in this research was disc rotational speed > feeding rate > disc tilt angle > blade number, and the basecutting energy was minimum when the above four factors were 150 rpm, 1.0 m·s-1, 20°, and 4.Abstract. Previous studies on a new type of contra-rotating basecutter that was designed based on the support-cutting theory mainly focused on the relationship between the cutting quality of sugarcane stalks and the basecutter parameters. However, the relationship between these factors and the energy consumption during basecutting was not studied. Therefore, a contra-rotating basecutting platform was developed to investigate how the rotational speed (RS) and tilt angle (TA) of the cutting disc, cutting blade number (BN), and sugarcane stalk feeding rate (FR) affected basecutting energy consumption through a series of bench tests, which included four single-factor experiments and a four-factor four-level orthogonal experiment. Results of the single-factor experiments showed that the basecutting energy consumption increased with increasing RS and BN, while the energy consumption decreased with increasing TA and FR. In addition, t-test results among the four levels of each factor indicated that the differences were not significant (p > 0.05) for level 3 vs. 4 of TA, for level 2 vs. 3 and level 2 vs. 4 of BN, and for level 2 vs. 3 of FR. However, there were significant differences between the other two levels of each factor. ANOVA of the orthogonal experiment results showed that RS and FR had significant influence on basecutting energy consumption, while TA and BN had no significant influence. The influencing order of the four factors on energy consumption was RS > FR > TA > BN (F-values of 19.64 > 10.04 > 4.95 > 2.45). Finally, the optimal combination was determined as 150 rpm for RS, 20° for TA, 4 for BN, and 1.0 m.s-1 for FR. This study provides references for the optimal design of contra-rotating basecutters, which could greatly reduce energy consumption during sugarcane harvest. Keywords: Contra-rotating basecutter, Energy consumption, Orthogonal experiment, Single-factor experiment, Support-cutting theory.