Simulation the Process of Separation of Seed Material of Small-Seed Cultures on Indented Cylinder

Abstract

Separation is an important process of processing seed material of small-seeded crops. This process is based on technical and technological principles of separation of seed material depending on differences in physical and mechanical properties of individual components of seed material. The quality of seed directly depends on the quality of separation. Cylindrical triers are seed cleaning machines designed to separate seeds that differ in length. The working body of the trier is a cylinder with an inner honeycomb surface and a prefabricated hopper, which is mounted on the axial support of the cylinder. The principle of operation of the trier is based on the rotation of the cylinder, during which the cells get seeds of different geometric sizes. The aim of the study is to determine the theoretical patterns of change of technological parameters of the process of separation of seed material of small-seeded crops from the design and regime parameters of the cylindrical honeycomb trier by numerical simulation. A model of the process of separation of seeds of small-seeded crops on a cylindrical honeycomb trier in the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ software package has been developed. Based on the physical and mechanical properties of seed material on the example of mustard seeds, the initial and boundary conditions of the cylindrical honeycomb trier, the separation process is visualized depending on research factors (number of seeds and impurities in the seed mixture, trier cylinder and trier cylinder and diameter). The next stage of research is to determine the dependence of the values of the minimum and maximum angles of seed exit from the cell of the trier cylinder on the research factors.