Optimization Design of a Pneumatic Wheat-Shooting Device Based on Numerical Simulation and Field Test in Rice-Wheat Rotation Areas

In rice-wheat rotation areas of China, traditional wheat seeders have severe blockage, low working efficiency and poor seeding quality. In this study, a pneumatic shooting technology was designed, consisting mainly of a nozzle, shell and acceleration tube. To improve the sowing depth of the pneumatic shooting device, the response-surface methodology of structure parameters and CFD simulation technology was adopted in this work. The effects of working pressure, acceleration-tube diameter and throat distance on the steady airflow length (SAL) and steady airflow velocity (SAV) were studied by airflow field analysis, and the response-surface method was introduced to obtain the optimal parameter combination of the pneumatic shooting device for wheat. The optimal parameter combination was working pressure 686 kPa, acceleration tube diameter 8 mm and throat distance 20 mm. The simulation result showed that the optimized device of pneumatic shooting performs faster and has more stable airflow field characteristics in comparison to the initial device. The field test demonstrated that the optimized device has about 68% higher seeding depth than the initial device. The average field-seeding depth of the optimized device was 19.95 mm, which is about 68% higher than the initial device. The emergence rate for the optimized device was about 88.7% without obvious reduction. CFD and response-surface methods positively affect the optimization of pneumatic wheat-shooting devices, and the significance was also confirmed.