Optimal Design and Experiment of Electronically Controlled Inclined Spiral Precision Fertilizer Discharger

Abstract

In order to solve the traditional single-spiral fertilizer discharger issue of the fluctuation of fertilizer-discharge flow and the problem of precise fertilizer discharge, the innovative design of a cantilevered oblique placement of a fertilizer-discharging spiral structure in the form of an inclined spiral fertilizer discharger was realized, in which, through the fertilizer spiral’s full end-filled extrusion, uniform delivery of the discharge was achieved. Discrete element simulation was used to compare the fertilizer-discharge characteristics of inclined and traditional single-spiral fertilizer dischargers, and the results proved that the inclined spiral fertilizer discharger effectively reduced the fluctuation of the fertilizer-discharge flow rate. Through a theoretical analysis preformed to determine the theoretical fertilizer discharge and the main parameters affecting the uniformity of fertilizer discharge, we identified the tilting angle of the fertilizer discharger (θ) and the distance from the termination spiral blade to the fertilizer outlet (l). A two-factor, five-level quadratic generalized rotary combination experiment was conducted with two parameters (θ and l) as the experiment factors and the variation coefficient of fertilizer-discharge uniformity (σ) as the experiment indicator. The experimental results showed that for σ, θ was a highly significant effect, l was a significant effect, and σ was less than 8.5%; when θ was 35.02° and l was 16.87 mm, the fertilizer-discharge performance was better. A bench experiment was used to compare the traditional and inclined spiral fertilizer dischargers, and the results showed that the relative error of the variation coefficient between the bench and the simulation experiment under this combination was 2.28%. And compared with the traditional spiral fertilizer discharger’s σ average increase of 80.79%, the effect of fertilizer discharge was better than the traditional spiral fertilizer discharger. A fertilizer application controller was developed, and the bench performance was tested based on the measured fertilizer-discharge flow rate fitting equation of this combined inclined spiral fertilizer discharger. The results show that the electronically controlled inclined spiral fertilizer discharger has an average deviation of 3.12% from the preset value, which can be used to regulate the flow of fertilizer discharged through the fertilizer controller to realize precise fertilizer application, and this study can provide a reference for the optimal design of the spiral fertilizer discharger.