Optimization Design and Experiment of a Cotton Straw-Crushing Device Based on Computational Fluid Dynamics

In order to design the structure and optimize the working parameters of a straw-crushing device, and to improve the qualified rate of straw-crushing length and the rate of straw fluidity, the influence of the airflow characteristics and pressure distribution in the working state of the crushing chamber and the different structure and working parameters of the straw-crushing device on the airflow field were studied based on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software Fluent 19.2. The simulation results show that by changing the rotation speed of the cutter shaft, the negative pressure and mass flow rate of the inlet surface of the flow field reach the maximum values of 63.6 Pa and 1.64 kg/s, respectively, when the rotation speed of the cutter shaft is 2000 rpm, which proves that the rotation speed of the cutter shaft increases, and the feeding performance also increases. In the case of 0, 8 and 16 air knives, the peak flow velocity in the crushing chamber is 43.1 m/s, 50.1 m/s and 54.48 m/s, respectively, and the airflow in the crushing chamber is improved to a certain extent, which proves the feasibility of the air knives’ structure. In order to verify the simulation results, a field experiment was carried out. The results showed that the qualified rate of straw crushing was 94.13% and the drop rate was 4.26% under the conditions of a cutter shaft speed of 1800 rpm, a machine forward speed of 6 km/h and a height of 80 mm of the cutter off the ground. The field experiment and simulation show that the qualified rate of crushing increases with the increase in the rotation speed of the cutter shaft, but the increase rate slows down, and the random speed decreases. The drop rate decreases with the increase in tool height and tool speed. The air knife structure improves the crushing qualification rate and significantly reduces the drop rate, which verifies the simulation accuracy. This study provides a theoretical basis for the optimization of straw-crushing devices.