Simulation of Sesame Seeds Outflow in Oscillating Seed Metering Device Using DEM

Abstract

Introduction. Sesame crop is one of the most important export crops in many countries around the world, especially in Africa. To meet the agricultural requirement of precision planting, various types of precision seed planters have been developed. Numerous studies were carried out to study the optimisation of the parameters of the precision planting. One of these parameters, affecting the quality of the precision seeder, is the grain outflow from the seed metering device. Materials and Methods. In order to maintain good continuous performance of an oscillating seeder, it is important to monitor seed flow in real-time and adjust oscillation parameters automatically. Existing research methods, such as prototyping and monitoring the process using a high-speed camera, by reason of the random movement of particles, do not allow obtaining sufficient data to understand trajectories and velocities of particles and existing equations for particle motion when simulating the sowing process do not allow taking into account the interaction of particles that having various shapes, rolling and sliding friction coefficients, and the elastic modulus of particle materials and a working body. In this study, the outflow rate of sesame seeds in an oscillating seed metering device was modeled using the simulation method based on the discrete element method. The aim of this study is to create a simulation model of an oscillating-type sowing planter using the sowing sesame seeds as an example for evaluating the effectiveness of this model, and the possibility of further optimization and prediction of sowing seeds with this device. Results. The analysis of the results showed that during the simulation, the sowing rate of sesame seeds when leaving the oscillating seed metering holes has significant differences in number and direction. The results of the modeling process in this study showed that when opening a hole in the oscillating seeder, a number of sesame seeds from 0 to 4 were coming out of it. The resulting model allows monitoring the behavior of each particle of a sesame seed, analyzing its trajectory, speed, and forces acting on it at any one time, and varying the parameters to obtain the dependence of uneven seeding on the kinematic and geometric parameters of the device. Discussion and Conclusion. The obtained simulation results provide an effective method for predicting the consumption of sesame seeds from the oscillating seed meter, which serves as the basis for optimizing the kinematic and geometric parameters of the oscillating sowing device in order to increase its efficiency. This model is universal and can be adapted to sow other crops.