Design and Test of the Clearing and Covering of a Minimum-Tillage Planter for Corn Stubble

Shouyin Hou, Shengzhe Wang, Zhangchi Ji and Xiaoxin Zhu ()
Additional contact information
Shouyin Hou: College of Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
Shengzhe Wang: College of Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
Zhangchi Ji: College of Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
Xiaoxin Zhu: College of Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: Conservation tillage technology can reduce wind erosion and soil erosion, improve soil fertility, avoid straw burning and relieve ecological pressure. It is an important measure to achieve sustainable agricultural development. In northeast China, there is a large amount of straw covering the ground after the corn machine harvest, which can easily lead to the blockage of the soil-touching parts during no-tillage seeding, affecting sowing quality and crop yield. In order to solve the above problems, the clearing and covering of a minimum-tillage planter for corn stubble was developed. The machine can complete multiple processes, such as seedbed preparation, seeding, fertilization, covering and suppression, straw covering, etc., in a single entity. This paper focuses on the design of the straw cleaning device and uses discrete element method software (EDEM 2018, Altair Engineering, Troy, MI, USA) to establish the straw cleaning device–straw–soil discrete element simulation model. The quadratic-regression orthogonal center-of-rotation combination test method is used to optimize the parameter combination of the machine, using the operating speed, the speed of the knife roller and the penetration depth of the knife as the test factors and using the rate of cleaning straw and the equivalent power consumption as the evaluation index. The results show that each factor has a significant influence on the performance evaluation indices, and the order of influence of each factor on the rate of cleaning straw is operation speed > penetration depth of knife > speed of knife roller, and the order of influence of each factor on the equivalent power consumption is penetration depth of knife > speed of knife roller > operation speed. The optimal combination of parameters is a 5.5–6.2 km/h operation speed, a 500 rpm speed of the knife roller, a 40 mm penetration depth of the knife, a straw-cleaning rate of more than 90% and an equivalent power consumption of less than 8 kW. This study provides technical and equipment support for the promotion of conservation tillage technology in Northeast China.

Keywords: conservation tillage; minimum-tillage seeding; straw clearing and covering; discrete element method; design; test (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)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/8/1209/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/8/1209/ (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:8:p:1209-:d:886908

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 ().