Simulation and experimental analysis of Camellia oleifera fruit shedding based on finite element explicit dynamics

Abstract

As an important oil crop in China and the world, the harvesting problem of Camellia oleifera has attracted much attention. Research is needed on mechanical characteristics of harvesting equipment. Explicit dynamics was used to establish a finite element model under a simulated load response to the branch-pedicel-fruit system of C. oleifera to predict the fracture process at the pedicel junction. The separation mechanism of C. oleifera fruit was determined by measuring the constitutive parameters of fruit branches and pedicels and conducting separation experiments and explicit dynamics simulations on different hanging fruits. The maximum stress at the fruit pedicel was 1.14 MPa, and the goodness of fit between the simulation and experiment was approximately 89.5%, indicating that the branch-pedicel-fruit finite element model could accurately reflect the fruit shedding process and that the pedicel diameter was correlated positively with the separation force. This study provides technical parameters for the optimized design of existing C. oleifera harvesting equipment.