Modelling the harvester?s front end to reduce billet and stool damage; the behaviour of leaves

The interactions between harvester front-end components and the cane plant have previously been identified to cause significant damage to the harvested stalk and the remaining stool. Damage to the stool causes reduced yield in the next return. A simulation of the front-end components of a sugarcane harvester interacting with stalks and leaves was previously developed using the finite element model (FEM) software LS-DYNA. As well as providing visual detail on what is happening in the process, the simulation can predict the forces, stresses, strains and deformations experienced by both the plant and harvester components. Better understanding of these is likely to lead to improved geometry and interactions between the components, leading to improved harvester design and operation. This paper reports on expanding and improving the model?s capabilities. In particular, the sugarcane leaves were modified by changing material properties to align with updated published research alongside adjustments to the leaf thickness. The model now describes the behaviour of sugarcane leaves without predicting unrealistic early failure and without a large increase in computational resources. In addition, the cane stalks, including leaves, were made to interact with the crop dividers by adding extra stalks at different degrees of lodging to a revised soil geometry.