Calibration of discrete element simulation parameters of grapevine antifreezing soil and its interaction with soil-cleaning components

Grapevine in seasonally frozen regions needs to be warm-insulated by soil in winter with the antifreezing soil removed in spring most mechanically by a soil removal machine. The purpose of this paper is to simulate the interaction between the insulating soil (with sandy loam texture) and the soil-cleaning materials (Q235 steel, rubber) commonly used in the soil removal machine, based on the discrete element method. The simulation model was constructed based on properties of the soil by integrating the hysteretic spring contact model (HSCM) and the linear cohesion model (LCM) as the contact model between soil particles. We took soil-soil restitution coefficient, soil-soil frictional coefficient, soil-soil rolling coefficient and soil cohesion energy density as the determinants and the soil accumulation angle as an evaluation index. The 4-factor universal rotation center combination simulation test, based on the EDEM, was used to regress the relationship between the determinants and the index using the Design-Expert software. The results showed that the soil-soil frictional coefficient was the only parameter that did not have significant effects on the soil accumulation angle. The best contact-parameter combination between soil particles was obtained by taking the physically measured soil accumulation angle as the optimization objective, which gave 0.51 for the soil-soil restitution coefficient, 0.65 for the soil-soil frictional coefficient, 0.06 for the soil-soil rolling frictional coefficient, and 10 495 J/m3 for the soil cohesion energy density. The associated soil accumulation angle was 31.74o, with a relative error of 0.83% compared with the physically measured results. The universal testing machine for soil yield test was used to obtain the HSCM model parameters based on the change in penetration stress with the displacement, and the resultant soil yield strength was 0.38 MPa. The static frictional coefficient between soil and Q235 steel as well as the rubber measured by the inclination test bench was 0.38 and 0.48 respectively. These data and the EDEM were used to conduct the simulation test of the soil slip, with the restitution coefficient and the rolling frictional coefficient between soil and the materials taken as the determinants and the sliding frictional angle as evaluating index. Regressing the test date with the two-factor universal rotation center combination test showed that the rolling frictional coefficient between soil and the materials had a significant effect on the sliding frictional angle between soil and the steel plate and rubber. In contrast, the restitution coefficient between the soil and the materials impacted significantly on the sliding frictional angle between the soil and the rubber but not on the soil and the steel plate. The restitution coefficient and the rolling frictional coefficient between the soil and the Q235 steel as well as the rubber were optimized by using the measured sliding frictional angle as the optimization objective. The resultant restitution coefficient and the rolling frictional coefficient were 0.60 and 0.37 respectively for the soil and the Q235 steel, and 0.61 and 0.23 respectively for the soil and the rubber. Soil bin test and simulation test of the scraper were conducted to verify the calibrated discrete element model parameters. The horizontal forward resistance of the scraper in the soil bin test and simulation test was 228.36 and 213.79 N respectively, with a relative error of 6.38%. The results presented in this paper have important implications for using discrete element method to analyze the removal of grapevine-insulating soil.