STRUCTURAL DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE STUDY OF SALT-ALKALI SOIL ROTARY BLADE BASED ON DISCRETE ELEMENTS

Aiming at the issues of high energy consumption and poor quality resulting from the compacted and heavy soil in the saline-alkali lands of the Yellow River Delta, this paper systematically analyzes the dynamic characteristics of rotary blade and soil, investigates the influence of rotary tillage blade structural parameters on the tillage performance of saline-alkali soils, designs a blade edge curve based on the sliding cutting effect, and identifies the primary factors and their value ranges that influence the energy consumption of rotary tillage blades. Using EDEM software, combined with a second-order orthogonal rotation center combination test, the test factors were bending angle, working width, and tangent face height, and the test indicator was operational power consumption. Analysis was conducted using Design-Expert 13, resulting in the optimal structural parameter combination for the rotary blade being a bending angle of 136.49°, working width of 34.20 mm, and tangent plane height of 42.23 mm. The theoretical operating power consumption at this point is 36.64 kW. To verify the accuracy of the experiments, field comparison tests were conducted. The results showed that under the same operating conditions, the operational power consumption of the designed rotary blade is 38.49 kW, representing a 16.07% reduction compared to traditional rotary tiller blades. This provides theoretical reference for the development and utilization of saline-alkali land and the reduction of resistance and improvement of efficiency in rotary tillers.