Analysis and parameter optimization of movement trajectory and impact characteristics during bagging process of potato combine harvester

Aiming at the problems of unclear potato movement trajectory and serious force impact, this study took the potato bagging device with buffer roller as the object of research. Through single-factor experiments, it analyzed how the roll diameter, conveyor speed, feed amount, and size of the potato collection bag affected the force of potatoes. Based on the EDEM-RecurDyn coupled simulation, it applied the Box-Behnken experimental method to conduct a three-factor orthogonal experiment on the operating parameters of the device, which took the maximum compressive force of the potato and the maximum kinetic energy as the experimental indices, and took the roller diameter, conveying speed, and feeding amount as the experimental factors. Establishing a quadratic polynomial regression model by using Design Expert software, the regression model was optimized to obtain the best combination of parameters as follows: roll diameter was 212 mm, conveying speed was 0.9 m/s, and feeding amount was 30 t/h. The verification experiment was conducted by using a potato impact recording device, and the results showed that under the condition of the optimal parameter combination, the maximum compressive force of the electronic potato was 238.854 N when bagging, which was close to the theoretical value after parameter optimization, with an error of 5.40%. The rate of damage to potatoes and skin-breaking rate were 0.98% and 1.86%, respectively. The research results can provide support for the study of the motion trajectory, impact force characteristics, and loss reduction of potatoes during subsequent bagging operations.