Simulating Tillage Using EDEM Simulations
Altair EmployeeSimulating soils with EDEM simulations is important in the agricultural industry due to the scale and complexity of real-world applications. Physical testing can be time consuming and often not feasible to replicate under the exact same conditions.
Why Simulate Tillage?
There are several factors that need to be understood, with some of the most common problems being:
- Lack of understanding of soil movement and plough depth.
- Effect of operational parameters with terrain changes.
- Uneven distribution of soil.
- Wear on the equipment.
By using EDEM simulations, you can explore different tillage scenarios, optimize operating conditions, and improve efficiency.
Simulation Approach:
1. EDEM Particle Shapes:
- For soils, MultiSpheres particles are suitable as they capture the irregularity of granular material.
- For flexible stalks, SpheroCylinder particles are more appropriate as they represent the elongated shape and bending of fibers.
Check out this video:
2. EDEM Material Databases
EDEM includes a range of material databases, providing easy access to thousands of ready to simulate materials. Our material library, designed to model soils using the EEPA contact model, includes the Soils starter pack, which has 8 soil models with varying combinations of compressibility and stickiness.
Simulating soft soils in EDEM with the Soils Starter Pack — Altair Community
3. Equipment Definition and Motions:
- You can import geometries from various CAD applications directly into EDEM.
- Motions can be assigned to each equipment part, with no limit to the number of kinematics you can assign.
- Multiple translations and rotations can be applied simultaneously to achieve precise motions for your application.
- For more complex motions, you can use Altair MotionSolve coupled with EDEM.
Please check full EDEM and MotionSolve coupled simulation here:
4. Calibration
To ensure that the EDEM models match the real-world behavior of your tillage application, you must calibrate the EDEM model for accurate and valid simulations. Granular materials have different properties, such as bulk density, particle size distribution, and moisture content, which can change depending on processing methods.
Calibration eLearning course:
Altair Course: EDEM - Calibration
Check out this post for further Calibration information:
Discrete Element Method Calibration with EDEM — Altair Community
Tools available to assist with material calibration:
- EDEM Calibration Kit: To model calibration tests.
- HyperStudy: To generate and run simulations.
- EDEMpy: To extract data.
Links:
Summary:
By using EDEM, you can:
- Improve operational efficiency through virtual testing.
- Minimize damage, blockages, and wear.
- Reduce the need for physical prototypes and operating costs.
- Gain key insights into crop-machine and soil-machine interactions.
- Perform testing out of season.