Establishment and Parameter Calibration of a Discrete Element Model for Shanghai Bok Choy Plug Seedling

To address the significant differences in the structure and mechanical properties of various components of the Shanghai bok choy plug seedling, and the lack of an accurate and reliable discrete element model of the whole plant and key bonding parameters in the simulation of the automatic transplanting process, a 128-cell Shanghai bok choy plug seedling was selected as the research object. Morphological, physical, mechanical, and contact property tests were systematically conducted to obtain the basic parameters of the seedling pot, leaf, petiole, and stem. A whole-plant discrete element model of Shanghai bok choy plug seedling, consisting of the seedling pot, leaf, petiole, and stem, was established using a combined method of component-wise modeling and overall reconstruction. The Hertz–Mindlin (no slip) and Bonding V2 contact models were jointly adopted to characterize interparticle contact, continuous structural behavior, and failure characteristics. Taking the ultimate compressive failure load of the seedling pot, leaf compression density, ultimate bending failure load of the petiole, and ultimate bending failure load of the stem as response indices, significant parameters were screened using the Plackett–Burman test, the optimization ranges were determined through the steepest ascent test, and the key bonding parameters were optimized and calibrated using the Box–Behnken response surface test. The results showed that the relative errors between the simulated and experimental values of the ultimate compressive failure load of the seedling pot, leaf compression density, ultimate bending failure load of the petiole, and ultimate bending failure load of the stem after optimization were 1.19%, 1.13%, 0.99%, and 0.72%, respectively, indicating that the established model can accurately characterize the mechanical response of the constituent parts of Shanghai bok choy plug seedling. The results provide a basis for discrete element simulation of the interaction between Shanghai bok choy plug seedling and key components of automatic transplanting equipment, as well as for the design optimization of automatic transplanting equipment.