Design and Evaluation of Two New Biomimetic Blades for Reducing the Shear Energy Required for Cutting Herbal Plants

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• H. Dehghan-Hesar
• D. Kalantari

Dep. of Mechanics of Biosystems Engineering, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University (SANRU), Sari, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/jam.v9i2.69843

Abstract

Introduction
Optimizing the energy consumption in mechanized agriculture is becoming more important due to the limited energy sources in the world. In this regard, optimization of the cutting blades is presented in this study by modifying the geometric form of the blade to reduce the forage cutting energy. Hence, two new blades, inspired by the geometric profiles of front claws of mole crickets and teeth of grasshoppers were designed and built using the biomimetic method (the method for transferring biological solutions to the engineering ones). Finally, the new biomimetic blades were tested and compared with two other conventional blades (flat and bent blades) by cutting 8 different types of crops and weeds.
 Materials and Methods
The main idea of building one of the blades was inspired by the geometric forms of mole crickets' scissors-like front legs and lower teeth of grasshoppers. Therefore, five adult mole crickets and five grasshoppers were collected from a farm in Kalat-e Naderi, Khorasan Razavi Province. In the next step, different images were captured from the front leg of mole cricket and tooth of grasshopper using the stereomicroscope (Nikon, SMZ-U, Japan). In the next step, the images were transferred to the image analysis software (Image J) and the boundary lines of images were selected. Then, the selected boundary lines were imported to SolidWorks software and the points on the selected curve were extracted. The obtained points were drawn in Matlab software and several fitting curves for the points were examined, e.g., Fourier function, Gaussian function, and polynomial function. According to the obtained results, the Gaussian profile was selected to design the blade with the highest correlation coefficient (R²=0.99), see Fig. 1d. To design the desired blade, a section of the Gaussian curve between points A and B were used. Finally, the biomimetic blade of the mole cricket and grasshopper were drawn in SolidWorks software (Fig. 1e). After designing the blades in the SolidWorks software, the biomimetic blades were built by a CNC machine.
Results and Discussion
In all the treatments, a significant difference was observed between the biomimetic blades and the conventional flat and bent blades according to the results of Tukey's test at the level of 5%. The obtained results showed that there was no significant difference between the mole cricket and grasshopper blades at the level of 5% for cutting. According to the results obtained in this study, there was a significant difference at the level of 5% between the grasshopper and flat blades for cutting alfalfa, clover, amaranth, orach, and poaceae; as well as between the grasshopper and bent blades for cutting alfalfa, clover, nutsedge, and amaranth, also between mole cricket and flat blades for cutting alfalfa, clover, purslane, amaranth, orach, paddy, and poaceae and finally between mole cricket and flat blades in cutting alfalfa, clover, nutsedge, amaranthus, and paddy. In this regard, no significant difference at the level of 5% was observed between the flat and bent blades for all cutting treatment. The batches containing 6 stems were used for cutting the soft stems with low shear stress and the batches containing 4 stems were used for cutting thick stems with high shear stress.
Conclusion
The results obtained in this study indicated that the geometrical form of the blade has a significant influence on the amount of required shear energy. The mole cricket biomimetic blade reduced the cutting energy compared to the flat blade by 23.37% to 52.51% (with the mean of 39.11%) and compared to the bent blade by 10.46% to 52.46% (with the mean of 32.8%). The grasshopper biomimetic blade also reduced the cutting energy compared to the flat blade by 15.78% to 53.82% (with the mean of 33.59%) and compared to the bent blade by 2% to 46.29% (with the mean of 27.87%). According to the results of this study, the mole cricket biomimetic blade showed better performance in comparison with the grasshopper biomimetic blade for cutting the plants and as a final result could be recommended to build the plant cutting blades.

Keywords

• Biomimetic
• Energy
• Grasshopper
• Mole cricket
• Mower blade

20.1001.1.22286829.1398.9.2.2.3

Main Subjects

• Design and Construction

References

1. ASABE Standards. 2008. S358.2. Moisture measurement eforages. St. Joseph, Mich.: ASABE.

2. Azadbakht, M., E. Esmaeilzadeh, and M. Esmaeili-Shayan. 2015. Energy consumption during impact cutting of canola stalk as a function of moisture content and cutting height. Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences 14 (2): 147-152.

3. Chancellor, W. J. 1987. Cutting biological materials. Agr Eng. Hand book. CRC Press Inc.

4. Chattopadhyay, P., and K. Pandey. 1999. Effect of knife and operational parameters on energy requirement in flail forage harvesting. Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research 73: 3-12.

5. Chapman, R. F. 1998. The insects: structure and function. Cambridge university press.

6. Chen, Y., J. L. Gratton, and J. Liu. 2004. Power requirements of hemp cutting and conditioning. Biosystems Engineering 87: 417-424.

7. Dehghan-Hesar, H., and D. Kalantari. 2016. Design a biomimetic disc using geometric features of the claws. AgricEngInt: CIGR Journal 18 (1): 103-109.

8. Dowgiallo, A. 2005. Cutting force of fibrous materials. Journal of Food Engineering 66: 57-61.

9. Fiazza, C., T. Salumäe, M. Listak, G. Kulikovskis, R. Templeton, O. Akanyeti, W. Megill, P. Fiorini, and M. Kruusmaa. 2010. Biomimetic mechanical design for soft-bodied underwater vehicles. Pages 1-7. OCEANS 2010 IEEE-Sydney: IEEE.

10. Galedar, M. N., A. Jafari, S. Mohtasebi, A. Tabatabaeefar, A. Sharifi, M. O'Dogherty, Sh. Rafiee, and G. Richard. 2008. Effects of moisture content and level in the crop on the engineering properties of alfalfa stems. Biosystems Engineering 101: 199-208.

11. Ghahraei, O., D. Ahmad, A. Khalina, H. Suryanto, and J. Othman. 2011. Cutting tests of kenaf stems. Transactions of the ASABE 54: 51-56.

12. Gupta, C., and M. Oduori. 1992. Design of the revolving knife-type sugarcane basecutter. Transactions of the ASAE 35: 1747-1752.

13. Igathinathane, C., A. Womac, and S. Sokhansanj. 2010. Corn stalk orientation effect on mechanical cutting. Biosystems Engineering 107: 97-106.

14. Igathinathane, C., A. Womac, S. Sokhansanj, and S. Narayan. 2009. Size reduction of high-and low-moisture corn stalks by linear knife grid system. Biomass and Bioenergy 33: 547-557.

15. Igathinathane, C., L. Pordesimo, M. Schilling, and E. Columbus. 2011. Fast and simple measurement of cutting energy requirement of plant stalk and prediction model development. Industrial Crops and Products 33: 518-523.

16. Ince, A., S. Uğurluay, E. Güzel, and M. Özcan. 2005. Bending and shearing characteristics of sunflower stalk residue. Biosystems Engineering 92: 175-181.

17. Johnson, P. C., C. L. Clementson, S. K. Mathanker, T. E. Grift, and A. C. Hansen. 2012. Cutting energy characteristics of Miscanthus x giganteus stems with varying oblique angle and cutting speed. Biosystems Engineering 112: 42-48.

18. Kaack, K., and K.-U. Schwarz. 2001. Morphological and mechanical properties of Miscanthus in relation to harvesting, lodging, and growth conditions. Industrial Crops and Products 14: 145-154.

19. Kamgar. S., F. Noori Gushki, and H. Mustafavand. 2016. Field evaluation of cutter and feeder mechanism of chickpea harvester for lentil harvesting. Journal of Agricultural Machinery 6 (2): 396-405. (In Farsi).

20. Khazaei, J., H. Rabani, A. Ebadi, and F. Golbabaei. 2002. Determining the shear strength and picking force of pyrethrum flower. AIC Paper 2: 221.

21. Li, M., D. Chen, S. Zhang, and J. Tong. 2013. Biomimeitc design of a stubble-cutting disc using finite element analysis. Journal of Bionic Engineering 10: 118-127.

22. Maharlooei. M. M., M. Loghavi, and S. M. Nasiri. 2014. Developing an in-field yield monitoring system and predicting some nutritional quality properties of Alfalfa using shear and compressive energy. Journal of Agricultural Machinery 4 (2): 184-1935. (In Farsi).

23. Mathanker, S. K., T. E. Grift, and A. C. Hansen. 2015. Effect of blade oblique angle and cutting speed on cutting energy for energycane stems. Biosystems Engineering 133: 64-70.

24. Maughan, J. D., S. K. Mathanker, T. E. Grift, and A. C. Hansen. 2013. Impact of blade angle on miscanthus harvesting energy requirement. Pages 1. 2013 Kansas City, Missouri, July 21-July 24, 2013: American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.

25. McRandal, D., and P. McNulty. 1978. Impact cutting behaviour of forage crops I. Mathematical models and laboratory tests. Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research 23: 313-328.

26. Mekonnen, D. K., E. Bryan, T. Alemu, and C. Ringler. 2017. Food versus fuel: Examining tradeoffs in the allocation of biomass energy sources to domestic and productive uses in Ethiopia. Agricultural Economics 48 (4): 425-435.

27. Naghipour zadeh mahani, M., and M. H. Aghkhani. 2016. The effect of slicing type on drying kinetics and quality of dried carrot. Journal of Agricultural Machinery 6 (1): 224-235. (In Farsi).

28. O'dogherty, M., and G. Gale. 1991. Laboratory studies of the dynamic behaviour of grass, straw and polystyrene tube during high-speed cutting. Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research 49: 33-57.

29. Persson, S. 1987. Mechanics of cutting plant material. American society of agricultural engineers. St. Joseph, Michigan, USA.

30. Raibert, M., K. Blankespoor, G. Nelson, and R. Playter. 2008. Bigdog, the rough-terrain quadruped robot. IFAC Proceedings Volumes 41: 10822-10825.

31. Sitkei, G. 1987. Mechanics of agricultural materials. Elsevier.

32. Srivastava, A. K., C. E. Goering, R. P. Rohrbach, and D. R. Buckmaster. 1993. Engineering principles of agricultural machines. American society of agricultural engineers St. Joseph, Mich. Report no.

33. Taghijarah, H., H. Ahmadi, M. Ghahderijani, and M. Tavakoli. 2011. Shearing Characteristics of Sugar Cane (Saccharum officinarum L.) Stalks as a Function of the Rate of the Applied Force. Australian Journal of Crop Science 5: 630.

34. Womac, A., M. Yu, C. Igathinathane, P. Ye, D. Hayes, S. Narayan, S. Sokhansanj, and L. Wright. 2005. Shearing Characteristics of Biomass for Size Reduction. 2005 ASAE Ann. Pages 07. Int. Meeting.

35. Yu, M., A. Womac, C. Igathinathane, P. Ayers, and M. Buschermohle. 2006. Switchgrass ultimate stresses at typical biomass conditions available for processing. Biomass and Bioenergy 30: 214-219.