Performance Evaluation of Liquorice Harvester with Novel Oscillating Shovel-Rod Components Using the Discrete Element Method

Lipengcheng Wan, Yonglei Li (), Chao Zhang, Xiang Ma, Jiannong Song, Xiangqian Dong and Jicheng Wang
Additional contact information
Lipengcheng Wan: College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Yonglei Li: College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Chao Zhang: College of Agricultural Equipment Engineering, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471023, China
Xiang Ma: College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Jiannong Song: College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Xiangqian Dong: College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Jicheng Wang: College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-20

Abstract: Liquorice harvesting is the key process in the development of the liquorice industry. For harvesting liquorice with about 400 mm growth depth, a lightweight harvester with novel oscillating shovel-rod components was developed. Draft force, total torque, specific energy consumption, separation proportion, and soil structure maintenance were used to evaluate harvester performance under varied working conditions, and throw intensity and total torque were analyzed. A DEM model was developed to simulate the excavation and separation of soil. Three sets of single-factor simulation tests and one set of field tests were conducted. The results indicated that: Each 1 mm increase in amplitude decreased draft force by 463.35 N and increased total torque and specific energy consumption by 35.03 Nm and 4.3 kJ/m 3 , respectively. Each 1 Hz increase in vibration frequency increased specific energy consumption by 3.12 kJ/m 3 , while draft force and total torque decreased by 375.75 N and 28.44 Nm, respectively. Each 0.1 m/s increase in forwarding speed increased the draft force, total torque and specific energy consumption by 1302.72 N, 13.26 Nm and 3.82 kJ/m 3 , respectively. The main separation areas of the shovel-rod were front areas, where the soil separation proportion is greater than 60%, and the soil was completely separated at the end areas. The soils after harvesting had a relatively minimal disturbance in all layers, with soil structure maintenance greater than 0.61, and soil structure was well maintained. The liquorice plants were separated from the soil after passing smoothly through the oscillating shovel-rod components, during which the soil at different layers fell in sequence. This study revealed the interactive relationship between working components and soil, specifically the potential to maintain soil structure after harvesting. This new finding will assist in developing harvest techniques for rhizome crops with deep growth depth.

Keywords: liquorice; harvesting; discrete element method; shovel-rod; soil structure maintenance (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 (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/12/2015/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/12/2015/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:12:p:2015-:d:984617

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().