An Investigation of the Performance of Waterjet for Lotus Root Digging Device: Simulation and Experiment

抄録

The agricultural digging device for lotus root make waterjet scour away the soil around lotus root to help it float up to water surface by buoyancy on harvesting. The performance of the waterjet was investigated by CFD-DEM simulation and experiment for its optimization. The Hertz-Mindlin with JKR model was used as the soil around lotus root was cohesive. The simulation shoes that the digging depth increases with the increase of the jetting angle and the decrease of the diameter of nozzle. The preliminary trial verified this trend, and it revealed that the digging depth determined the digging ratio. In the field experiment, the effects of type of nozzle, diameter of nozzle and jetting angle on digging depth, digging ratio, breaking ratio and surface damage ratio were studied. The results showed that a larger diameter with a larger jetting angle for a suitable type of nozzle can obtain a high digging ratio with a lower breaking ratio and surface damage ratio.