ANALYSIS ON ROOT CUTTING MECHANISM OF SELF-PROPELLED CHINESE CABBAGE HARVESTER AND OPTIMISATION OF DEVICE PARAMETERS

Abstract

For Chinese cabbage cutting device in the harvesting process, the problem of cutting resistance and low cutting root qualification rate will occur. This paper takes the Chinese cabbage root as the research object, analyses the root-cutting mechanism of Chinese cabbage, and determines that the main factors affecting its cutting effect are the cutter's inclination angle, rotational speed and its working speed. The finite element method is adopted to establish a rigid-flexible coupling model between the cutting device and the cabbage root, and the Response Surface Method (RSM) central composite design method is used to investigate the relationship among the cutter inclination angle, the cutter rotational speed as well as the working speed and Maximum root-cutting reaction force (MRF) of the cabbage and to further obtain the optimal combination of parameters. Field test results show that in the optimal combination of parameters, which means cutter inclination angle of 11o, cutter rotating speed of 216 r/min and working speed of 0.28 m/s, the root cutting effect is perfect. At this time, the root-cutting qualification rate of 92.81% and field productivity of 0.12 hm2/h, meet the requirements of the standard of Chinese cabbage harvesting mechanization. The results of the study can provide reference for optimization of Chinese cabbage harvesting equipment design.