Design and Experiment with a Double-Roller Sweet Potato Vine Harvester

Guizhi Mu, Wanshuai Wang, Tingting Zhang, Lianglong Hu, Wenxiu Zheng and Wanzhi Zhang ()
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Guizhi Mu: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, China
Wanshuai Wang: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, China
Tingting Zhang: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, China
Lianglong Hu: Nanjing Research Institute of Agricultural Mechanization, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing 210014, China
Wenxiu Zheng: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, China
Wanzhi Zhang: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-17

Abstract: The yield of sweet potato vines is large, making it a good source of food. However, it is difficult to harvest sweet potato vines due to creeping and intertwining. Therefore, according to the domestic sweet potato planting model, this paper designed a double roll sweet potato vine harvester which can complete the operations of vine picking, vine killing, conveying and header harvesting at one time. The machine adopts the process of front roll vine picking, rear roll vine killing and rod bar lifting. The key components of the vine picking device, vine killing device and lifting device were designed and calculated. A numerical simulation test of the vine harvesting process was carried out by using the discrete element numerical simulation method. It was determined that the length of the vine picking rod from the outside to the inside is 175 mm, 150 mm and 105 mm, respectively, and the inclination angle of the end is 160°. There are six vine killing knives on each vine killing knife plate. The inclination of the lifting device is 50°and the conveying speed is 3 m/s. Using the box Behnken experimental design method, taking the vine picking roller speed, vine killing roller speed and ground clearance as the experimental factors, and taking the sweet potato vine harvest rate, stubble height and potato injury rate as the evaluation indexes, a quadratic regression orthogonal test was carried out, the effects of various factors on the evaluation indexes were analyzed, and the experimental factors were optimized and verified. The experimental results showed that the optimal parameter combination is as follows: the rotation speed of vine picking roller should be 716 r/min, the rotation speed of vine killing roller should be 1960 r/min and the ground clearance should be 16 mm. With these parameters, the harvest rate of sweet potato vines is 93.1%, the stubble height is 29.5 mm and the potato injury rate is 0.174%. As such, the harvester meets the requirements for the mechanized harvesting of sweet potato vines and is of great significance as a light and simplified product for the sweet potato industry.

Keywords: agricultural machinery; sweet potato vine; discrete element; harvester (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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