Influence of the operating parameters of air-sieve cleaning of a combine harvester

BACKGROUND: An increase in the quantity and quality of soybean crop seed can be achieved by using a combine harvester with two-phase threshing, since during conventional post-harvest processing, the yield of seed material is reduced due to the traumatic effects of the working organs of cleaning machines. One of the most important processes for obtaining soybean seed fraction is the purification process. In this regard, the improvement of air-sieve cleaning systems of combine harvesters is the most important task of combine engineering. OBJECTIVE: Identification of the patterns of changes in the airflow rate depending on the operating parameters of the air-sieve cleaning system of a combine harvester. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To study the parameters of the airflow, the experimental part of the research was carried out using a laboratory bench simulating the operation of a combine harvester cleaning system. A total of 43 experiments were conducted in three repetitions according to the matrix of the multifactorial experiment and 4 regression equations were obtained. RESULTS: Empirical dependences that describe the change in the airflow rate behind the sieve depending on various parameters of the grain cleaning system are presented. The influence of the operating parameters of the air-sieve cleaning system of a combine harvester on the nature of the airflow distribution is studied. The change in the airflow rate at the outlet of the fan diffuser and the flow rate distribution over the entire surface of the upper sieve are considered. CONCLUSIONS: The obtained patterns will be helpful to optimize the airflow distribution along the entire length of the sieve of the air-sieve cleaning system and to create prerequisites for automating the harvesting process. The decoded regression equations will be the basis for the development of an algorithm for automatic control of the parameters of the air-sieve cleaning of the combine harvester.