Simulation and Experimental Validation of Modeling for Sugarcane Flexible Flake Materials

Removal of impurities is one of the important parts of mechanized sugarcane harvesting. The main impurity (cane leaf) in the process of sugarcane machine harvesting belongs to flexible flake material. For the problem of less research on its construction simulation and lack of accurate simulation model parameters, this results in a large difference between the simulation effect and the actual operation in the equipment design, which to some extent limits the research on the design of the impurity removal device. In this paper, sugarcane material is used as the test material to carry out simulation and analysis research. After determining the intrinsic parameters of the sugarcane material through physical tests, a segmented flexible body model was established using EDEM software to calibrate the parameters of the sugarcane material. Stacking angle experiments and bending test methods were used to obtain its simulation model parameters. The coupled system model of billet–leaf—fan is constructed, and the reliability of the model is verified by the impurity rate, fan flow rate, cane leaf movement trajectory, and average speed. The experimental validation showed the simulation results and measurements at three fan speeds (1050 r/min, 1350 r/min, 1650 r/min): The average errors of the impurity rate, fan flow rate, and average cane leaf speed tests were 3.01%, 3.18%, and 4.21%, respectively; the trajectory of cane leaf movement was mainly ejected from the middle and upper middle of the fan outlet, which was the same as the test trajectory; the simulation results have high accuracy, proving that the model is relatively reliable. The model can theoretically solve the contradiction between the large size of sugarcane and impurities and the requirement that the grid size is not smaller than the particle size in the CFD-DEM coupling. It provides a reference for the coupling simulation of harvester debris removal device and the research of operation mechanism in the future.