Experimental investigation of bionic rough curved soil cutting blade surface to reduce soil adhesion and friction

Abstract The phenomenon of soil adhesion occurs often when machines interact with soil. Adhesion increases the working resistance and energy consumption of cutting or tillage tools and often decreases the working quality. The problem of soil adhesion has been solved by some soil-burrowing animals, such as the dung beetle, ant, pangolin and others. It was found that some exterior parts of soil-burrowing animals have geometrical rough structures, which was one of the reasons why soil-burrowing animals do not stick to the soil so much. In order to study the effects of the rough surface characteristics on bulldozer blades to reduce soil adhesion, several curved bulldozer blades with different “bionic” rough surface characteristics were designed and tested in comparison to smooth blades. In addition, the mean normal force on the blade surface was measured through small sensors mounted on certain points of the blade surface to study the soil to blade mechanics. The blades designed with rough surfaces were found to reduce the mean draft force. A considerable amount of soil adhered to the surface of the smooth blades, but little adhered to the rough blades. The mean normal pressure measured by the sensors mounted on the blade roughness convex curves was much larger than that between the convexes. The mean normal pressure was greatest on the blade bottom edge.