摘要
This study analyses the efficiency of a specially designed blade set used in the initial mud-cutting process that can mechanize the action of placing mud into the seedling trays to accelerate rice production as a whole. In this study, experiments were undertaken with specially designed blades, which consist of five optimized blades. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulations were adopted to optimize the blades for cutting, smashing, and spraying mud into the seedling trays. The effects of blade geometric parameters on efficiency were investigated based on mud splash volume in the first second and power consumption. Results of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that for machine efficiency (η ), bending angle (X ) is the most dominant input process parameter, followed by curved blade area (X ) and curved blade angle (X ). X is a significant factor for energy consumption. The results also indicated that the optimal specifications of the blade are X = 3150 mm , X = 115°, and X = 41°. With the optimal blades, the machine has a mud-cutting efficiency of 21.32 L/kJ with a relative error of 4.44% compared with the numerical value obtained by means of regression. The mean relative errors of power consumption and mud splash volume in the first second are 8.46% and 5.89%, respectively, and the efficiency between the experimental tests and simulation tests are 12.99%, indicating that the simulation model used in this study is reliable for the initial mud-cutting process.