ASABE Technical Library - Abstract

Abstract. Experimental study of mechanical properties of corn plants was conducted in this research.Apparatus for measuring ear picking up force and stubble pulling out force were designed and used in field tests. Tensile tests were conductedoncorn stalks at the ear position and under the ear position on the REGER universal testing machine. Experiments were carried out during three periods when the average moisture contents of corn stalks were 85.95%, 79.53% and 78.96%, respectively. The average forcesfor picking up ears were 825.67N, 767N and 656N, and for pulling out stubbles were 1.62kN, 1.52kN and 1.43kN. The average tensile forces of stalksat the ear position were 609N, 375N and 358N, and under the ear position were more than 1.97kN, 2.02kN and 1.95kN.The results showed that the force for picking up ears was less than the force for pulling out stubbles, and the tensile force of stalks under the ear position was bigger than thatat the ear position, which means picking up ears and pulling out roots could not happen simultaneously，andstalks would be broken firstly at the ear position. The mechanical properties parameters of corn plants obtained in this study provide evidence for design and optimization of corn stripper header.