Study of the Movement Dynamics of a Beet Leaves Harvester

Abstract

High-quality cutting of beet heads during harvesting reduces the loss of sugar-bearing upper parts of root crops. One of the ways to ensure high quality cutting is to scientifically substantiate the parameters of the machine that harvests the sugar beet leaves; this machine is front-mounted on the tractor’s attachment mechanism. Theoretical calculations established the following. A front-mounted beet topper machine with damping coefficient and the moment of inertia parameters that vary from 0.35 to 1.35 kN s m−1 and from 3000 to 3500 kg m2, respectively, is invariant to the influence of external disturbances in the form of vertical vibrations of the field’s longitudinal profile. These vibrations vary in frequency from 0 to 40 s−1 according to the harmonic function. Setting the tyres stiffness coefficient value of the leaves harvester support-feeler wheels at 315 kN m−1 is characterized by a desirable decrease (up to 41.2%) of the dynamic system’s amplitude–frequency values characteristics when the system is subjected to an external disturbance. With this value of tyre stiffness coefficient, the tyre inflation pressure should not exceed 0.125 MPa.