Engineering

Biology

Materials science

Geology

Dispersant

Oceanography

Physics

Nanotechnology

Simulation

Sieve (category theory)

Mathematics

Optics

Sieve analysis

Computational fluid dynamics

Particle (ecology)

Composite material

Combinatorics

Dispersion (optics)

Discrete element method

Biological system

Mechanics

Powder Technology

To improve the performance of cleaning device under a large feeding mass of maize mixture, a novel stagger-wave bionic sieve was designed based on the earthworm's contour to disturb maize particles. CFD-DEM (Computational Fluid Dynamics and Discrete Element Method) was used to simulate the behavior of particles on the bionic sieve. The results indicated that the motion of particles would be more dispersed after being disturbed. The behavior of particles was quantified by proposing the Dispersion Degree of Moving Directions of Particles (DDMDP). And the DDMDP on the bionic sieve under different structural parameters is 6.59%–18.42% higher than that on the planar sieve. The mechanism of the bionic sieve disturbing particles was revealed. The performance of cleaning device will be improved with increase of the DDMDP. And the simulation results were verified by bench test. This study will be helpful for the design and analysis of cleaning device.

Behavior of maize particles on the bionic sieve designed based on the earthworm's contour