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• The DEM was used to simulate the movement and distribution of fertilizes. • The best fertilization flow pattern was found under different machine parameters. • The orthogonal experimental design was adopted to optimize the performance. • The findings provide a scientific basis for the wide-strip cultivation. Addressing the issue of poor compatibility between the existing wheat rotary tillage fertilizer applicators and the wide-strip uniform sowing mode, this study developed a strip rotary tillage-fertilization device equipped with a front-mounted fertilizer pipe. This design aims to meet the nutrient requirements of different growth stages and to enhance the fertilizer utilization rate in a single application. The working principles and critical geometric parameters of the device were explored through theoretical analysis and discrete element simulation. Employing a quadratic regression-based orthogonal rotational combination design, the study used total power consumption (TPC), lateral uniformity index (LUI), and depth uniformity index (DUI) as response variables. The strip rotary tillage-fertilization process was modeled in EDEM, and dynamic simulations were conducted to generate an experimental dataset for further analysis. Variance analysis and response surface methodology were applied to the simulation results, identifying an optimal parameter combination of 50 mm longitudinal spacing, 60 mm lateral spacing, and a rotation speed of 310 rpm. Subsequent platform experiments validated this optimal configuration. The results indicated that the evaluation indices of the device, with a TPC of 3.04 kW, an LUI of 0.92, and a DUI of 0.55, demonstrated minimal fluctuations around the mean value under the optimal working parameters. This study provides theoretical insights and technological support for optimizing fertilizer application in wheat wide-strip uniform sowing, contributing to sustainable and efficient nutrient management in wheat cultivation.
Zhao et al. (Wed,) studied this question.