Analytical study of the soil sieving process through the surface of the potato heap cleaner

Abstract

The purpose. Justification of rational structural and kinematic parameters of the spiral cleaner of new construction, developed to improve the quality of potato tubers cleaning. Methods. Used methods of theoretical mechanics, higher mathematics and the theory of agricultural machinery. Conducted numerical calculations for the developed program in the system «Matlab». Results. Cleaning potato tubers from soil and plant impurities is an urgent problem in the technological process of potato production. We have developed a new spiral potato peeler, which is able to actively clean itself from sticky soil and effectively capture and remove lumps of soil of various sizes and shapes, as well as plant impurities. For substantiation of rational constructive and kinematic parameters of the cleaner the corresponding theoretical researches are carried out. The differential equation of reduction of soil lump mass at any moment of time taking into account structural and kinematic parameters of the cleaner is obtained. The solution of the differential equation on the PC has allowed to define the rational constructive and kinematic parameters of the spiral cleaner, providing improvement of quality of tuber cleaning. Conclusions. Calculations carried out on the PC showed that with the increase in the angular velocity of rotation of the spiral, the decrease of the soil lump mass increases also at the change of the angular velocity in the range from 10 to 30 rades–1 the sieving time is shortened by 0.07 s to 0.025 s, which means in three times. Changing the amplitude A of the oscillating motion of the helix end and angle e lifting of the screw line does not lead to a significant reduction in sieving time and does not significantly affect the final mass of the lump of soil on the surface of the cleaning spiral.