Investigation into Experimental and DEM Simulation of Guide Blade Optimum Arrangement in Multi-Rotor Combine Harvesters

Abstract

The cleaning performance of the cleaning shoe of a multi-rotor combine harvester has proven to be poor owing to the threshed output entering the cleaning section in an uneven manner. Experimental results indicated that the arrangement of the guide blades on the return plate surface has a significant effect on the threshed output distribution. In this paper, DEM (discrete element method) simulations were carried out in the EDEM software to examine the effect of the height of the guide blade, the installation angle, and the number of guide blades on threshed output distribution before entering the cleaning shoe. Based on the simulated results under different guide blades arrangements, the optimum arrangement location was obtained. The simulation’s results were verified by a field experiment and were consistent with the experimental results. The field experiment results indicate that the cleaning performance significantly improved with the proper guide blade arrangement. The corresponding grain impurity ratio declined significantly from 1.26% to 0.67%, and the grain sieve loss ratio, with a decrease of 53.2%, was reduced from 1.11% to 0.52%.