International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

The key problem in the technological process of harvesting any root crops is the removal and harvesting of tops from their heads on the root. Root crop tops are a valuable product, such as a source of animal feed, green fertiliser, and a suitable raw material for biogas production, and therefore a prerequisite for harvesting them is to completely cut off all the green mass from the heads, collect it in a vehicle and transport it to the place of use. The main thing is to ensure that root crops do not have green plant residues on their heads, that the heads themselves are not damaged and that they are not knocked out of the soil. The purpose of this study is to develop and test in production conditions a new combined unit for harvesting root crop tops using an integrated arable wheeled tractor. This study used the methods of machine use in crop production, methods of experimental research and field testing of agricultural machines and evaluation of their performance indicators. As a result of the study, a new design and technological scheme for harvesting root crop tops using an integrated arable wheeled tractor of traction class 3 was developed and substantiated. The developed and tested unit performs the technological process steadily and has sufficiently high quality indicators of the tops harvesting. Thus, when using a three-row version of the tops harvesting unit, the amount of cut tops is about 95…98%. The degree of damage to the heads of root crops does not exceed the norms established by agricultural requirements (no more than 5%). However, during the operation of this tops harvester, there is too high a percentage (60…65%) of grinding of tops leaves during its continuous cutting and loading without spear.

The article presents the design of a finger safety clutch with axial withdrawal of a jammed screw to remove it from the overload zone. The theoretical dependences of determining the change in torque during the operation of the finger safety clutch on the angle of relative rotation of the half couplings and the design and technological parameters of the engagement elements are presented. On the basis of force and kinetostatic analysis of the coupling, the nature and magnitude of the change in their torque at all stages of relative rotation of the coupling halves were determined. The developed and manufactured prototypes of the finger safety coupling made it possible to conduct a set of experimental studies. For the safety clutch of a screw conveyor, based on the analysis of theoretical and experimental test data, the adequacy of theoretical calculations and actual values of torques during the mechanism operation was compared.

The article presents a scheme of a new combined screw conveyor, which makes it possible to improve the performance of conveyors. To eliminate the identified disadvantages in the operation of flexible screw conveyors, new types of sectional working bodies hinged to each other have been developed, which will increase the reliability and durability of conveyors.

The article analyzes the dynamics of moisture content of the chernozem soil and the accumulation of productive moisture reserves in its thickness based on the data set from 1947 to 2022. Changes in the moisture regime within the periodically flushing water regime of the central part of the Left-Bank Forest-Steppe of Ukraine are analyzed. The central Forest-Steppe zone is characterized by a periodically flushing water regime, when an average of 165 mm of moisture accumulates in the meter thick chernozem, and therefore tends to the values of the moisture reserve under the non-flushing water regime, which exceeds its value by 25 mm, which is a stable trend of aridization of soil conditions in the spring. In the current climatic conditions of the central part of the Left-Bank Forest-Steppe, a regime of black soil moisture has been formed in the long-term time interval, which, under the influence of agrotechnical influences, cannot be shifted beyond the parameters of the non-flushing or periodically flushing water regime in the agrocenosis. The process of self-regulation of the Forest-Steppe zone’s resistance to active aridization and the Steppe’s “advance” on the Forest-Steppe is manifested.

Cleaning of root and tuber crops, in particular potato tubers, from soil impurities and plant residues when they are excavated from the soil is an important and urgent problem in the agricultural industry. This article discusses a new construction of a vibrating spiral root and tuber cleaner and a new experimental setup that makes it possible to study the influence of the main structural and kinematic factors on the operation of a spiral type cleaner, as well as to substantiate its rational structural and kinematic parameters. The main constructional difference of the developed cleaner is that the technological process of cleaning root and tuber crops from soil and plant impurities is carried out by moving the heap with coils of cantilevered spiral springs rotating at a certain angular speed and forced oscillatory movements of the ends of the spiral springs themselves in the longitudinal-vertical plane. In this case, soil and plant impurities are effectively sifted not only through the separating gaps and coils of the spirals, but are also significantly destroyed due to oscillatory movements. At the same time, the root and tuber bodies are guaranteed to be transported by the spiral coils themselves towards the unloading conveyor. In the case of covering the spiral coils with a rubber coating, there is no damage to the bodies of root and tuberous crops. The article also presents the developed methodology for conducting a multifactorial experiment on cleaning root and tuber crops from soil impurities and plant residues.

The article presents the construction and manufacturing of working screw harrow bodies, as well as the developed experimental setup for experimental studies, presents the methodology of research to determine the traction resistance of the working body. The variations of traction resistance force Px from the speed of harrow movement V, at different values of the angle of attack β of working screw bodies and working depth h are plotted.

Modern technologies for harvesting sugar beet tops provide for the so-called two-stage cut, when the main continuous cutting is first carried out from the heads of root crops, as a rule, by rotary top-cutting mechanisms and subsequent cleaning or trimming of the heads of root crops from the remains of tops on the vine. It is this haulm harvesting technology that provides the highest quality continuous cutting and collection of green mass, which can be used as feed for livestock or as a raw material for biogas production and cleaning of root crop heads from haulm residues, eliminating the loss of sugar-bearing mass. We have developed a new design of the head cleaner from the remnants of the tops, the production tests of which showed good results. Such a cleaner of heads of root crops consists of two drive horizontal shafts, on which cleaning elastic blades are hinged in the radial direction. At the same time, the shafts, as it were, wrap around each row of root crops and the blades, applying elastic blows to the heads from two opposite sides, effectively clean the spherical surfaces of the heads of sugar beet root crops from the remains of tops. A new experimental setup was also created, which makes it possible to simulate the operation of this cleaner in the field and conduct its experimental studies. We have developed a program and methodology for conducting a field multifactorial experiment for this cleaner of heads of sugar beet root crops from the remains of tops on the vine, to determine the quality indicators of its work. The obtained results of the research, processed using a PC, showed that improving the quality of the technological process of cleaning the heads of sugar beet roots from the remains of tops by a cleaner with two drive horizontal shafts can be achieved by increasing the angular velocity of the drive shafts of the cleaner and reducing the installation height of the blades above the soil surface by small its forward speed. Based on the analysis of the obtained functional and graphical dependencies, it has been established that the rational values of the operating modes of the studied sugar beet root heads cleaner from haulm residues, in which the most high-quality work will be carried out to remove haulm residues from the spherical surfaces of root crop heads, are: 1) the speed of the progressive movement of the cleaner – 1.5…2.5 m∙s^–1; 2) angular speed of rotation of drive shafts – 55…80 rad∙s^–1; 3) installation height of the blades of the cleaner above the level of the soil surface – 0…2.5 cm

By using the application package ANSYS Fluent, the numerical simulation of heat and mass transfer processes in the channels of shell-and-tube heat exchanger with compact placement of tube bundles has been carried out. The fields of velocities, temperatures and pressures in the heat exchanger channel were obtained and the conditions of hydrodynamic flow in the channels and the processes of heat transfer in these channels were analyzed. A new construction of shell-and-tube heat exchanger with compact arrangement of tubes in tube bundles is proposed and developed.

The operation of the machine attached to the back of the tractor to clean the heads of root crops from residues in the case of using copying pneumatic wheels causes oscillations of the tops harvester in the vertical plane, which significantly affects the quality of the process. Accordingly, the movement of the horizontal working body will depend on many structural and kinematic factors. Therefore, the development of a mathematical model that will describe the movement of the working body of such a unit is an important task. To solve which the method of construction of calculated mathematical models of functioning of agricultural machines and machine units, on the basis of theoretical mechanics and higher mathematics was used in the work.. Using which the equivalent scheme of movement of the unit is developed and the system of two nonlinear differential equations for detailed research of oscillations of the cleaner of heads of root crops in the longitudinalvertical plane at movement of its pneumatic copying wheels on roughnesses of a surface of soil is received. The mathematical model of movement of the cleaner with a horizontal cleaning shaft developed on the basis of initial equations of dynamics in the form of Lagrange of the 2nd kind allowed to establish depedencies between constructive and kinematic parameters of the car and its oscillatory characteristics. The found dependences created preconditions for the further mathematical modeling of parameters of the rear-mounted cleaner of heads of root crops, with a horizontal clearing shaft. Using the developed calculation model it is possible to optimize the values of angle B and coordinates у that characterize the oscillations of the machine in the longitudinal-vertical plane.

the basic principles of the theory of interaction of the vibrating digging working body with the body of the root crop fixed in the soil at vibrating digging of sugar beets are developed. The force interaction of ploughshare diggers with the soil is considered in the work. The values of normal soil reactions acting on the ploughshare of the excavating working body are determined, which, when vibrating in the longitudinal-vertical plane, can dig out the bodies of sugar beet roots from the soil. Based on the obtained equations describing this process, the prerequisites for finding the kinematic and structural parameters of the excavating working body are developed.

The equation of shock interaction of the vibrating digging working body with the body of the sugar beet root, fixed in the soil, which occurs in the process of vibratory digging of the roots, is made. Based on the shock interaction equation, the shock pulse and the maximum shock force that occur during this interaction were determined, which allowed to further assess the degree of damage and knocking out of root heads in the process of vibration digging of sugar beet. From the conditions of non-damage of root crops the expression for definition of admissible frequency of fluctuations of the vibrating digging working body taking into account its design parameters and translational speed of movement of the beet harvester is received. Based on the obtained equations describing this process, the optimal values of the kinematic and structural parameters of the working plow for vibration digging of sugar beets are found.

The paper presents the research into the specific aspects of hitching agricultural machines and implements to wide span tractors (vehicles). According to the results of the performed investigations, the redistribution of the normal reaction forces on the tractor’s front and rear wheels depends to a significant extent not only on the inclination of the hitch links of the wide span tractor (vehicle), but also on such design parameters as the distance from the linkage to the centre of resistance and the carrier wheel of the agricultural machine or implement. In order to exclude in practical terms completely the effect of the machines’ running gear compacting the soil in the yielding (agronomic) zones of the field, it is recommended to implement on the wide span tractors (vehicles) the controlling devices that allow adjusting the normal vertical load on the agricultural machine or implement’s carrying wheels. Such controlling devices can operate on the principle of the known weight transfer traction boosters used in conventional tractors.