Simulation Test and Verification of Material Conveying for Small and Medium-Sized Air Suction Jujube Picking Machine Based on CFD-Dem Coupling

Abstract

To improve the quality of air suction jujube picker, the CFD-DEM coupled method is used to numerically simulate the conveying process of jujube particles and explore the motion state, particle collision and energy loss of jujube particles in the pipeline. The erosion rate is selected as an evaluation index to discuss the influence of wind velocity, bending angle and diameter on the conveying process. The simulation results show that the collisions between jujubes, as well as the collisions between jujubes and pipe wall have an impact on the conveying performance, and the latter is more significant. The erosion rate is positively correlated with the wind velocity, negatively correlated with the pipe diameter, and the bending angle first decreases and then increases. The influence degree of factors on the erosion rate is: wind velocity > bending angle > pipeline diameter. The optimal parameter combination is a wind velocity of 28 m•s-1, a bending angle of 105 °, and a pipe diameter of 130 mm. At this time, the value of erosion rate is the lowest and the number of collisions and energy loss between jujube particles are reduced by 37.3 % and 13.87 % year-on-year, and those between jujube particles and pipe wall are reduced by 17.45 % and 17.61 % year-on-year, respectively. The test results show that the conveying pipe with optimized structural parameters can reduce the jujube skin damage rate by 2.06 %. The results of this study can provide a reference for the design and optimization of the air suction jujube picker.