Authors

Abstract

The ant (Pheidole megacephala, Fabricius) has a unique and hard mandibular structure to cut branches and crush hard food. Inspired by this special geometric structure of the mandibular teeth, a stereoscopic microscope was used to view the image of the mandible of the ant. The Origin and AutoCAD software were used to obtain the outer profile of the mandibular teeth of the ant. The outer profile of the ant's mandibular teeth was fitted and expressed by five-order polynomial function. According to the analysis of the profile curve of the maxillary teeth, the fourth tooth is the most convex and the sharpest. The fourth tooth of the ant plays a key role in its feeding process, therefore, the structural parameters of the fourth maxillary tooth were selected as bionic elements for bionic blade design. To compare the cutting performance of the bionic and ordinary flat blades, the performance of bionic blade and the ordinary blade were conducted by using ANSYS software, the cutting force-deformation characteristics were tested using the Rapid TA practical texture analyser. The results of the element simulation showed that the mechanical properties of bionic blade were better than those of the ordinary blade. The results of the cutting experiments indicated that under the loading speed of 5 mm/s, the maximum cutting force of the bionic blade was 137.51 N, which is 12.17 % lower than that of the ordinary flat blade. The average cutting force of the bionic blade was 96.56 N, which is 11.58 % lower than that of the ordinary flat blade. The cutting energy consumption of the bionic blade was 9.68 J, which is 11.92 % lower than that of the ordinary flat blade. Under the loading speed of 10 mm/s, the maximum cutting force of the bionic blade was 143.88 N, which is 10.37 % lower than that of the ordinary flat blade. The average cutting force of the bionic blade was 101.03 N, which is 9.77 % lower than that of the ordinary flat blade. The cutting energy consumption of the bionic blade was 10.14 J, which is 9.95 % lower than that of the ordinary flat blade. The experimental results suggested that the bionic blade can effectively reduce the cutting force and energy consumption; thus, the bionic blade is more suitable for cutting stalks. These results will be helpful in the development of cutting elements for cutting and chopping of corn stover and other processing machinery.

Abstract in Chinese

蚂蚁(Pheidole megacephala, Fabricius)具有独特而坚硬的上颚结构，可以切割树枝和粉碎坚硬的食物。受到这种特殊的上颚齿几何结构的启发，我们用体式显微镜来观察蚂蚁的上颚齿结构，利用Origin软件和Autocad软件获得蚂蚁上颚齿的外轮廓曲线，用五阶多项式函数拟合和表示蚂蚁上颚齿的外轮廓曲线。根据上颚齿的轮廓曲线分析，得出蚂蚁上颚第4齿最为凸出和尖锐，在其取食过程中起着关键作用，因此，选择蚂蚁上颚第四齿的结构参数作为仿生刀片设计的仿生元素。为了比较仿生刀片和普通平刃刀片的切削性能，运用ANSYS软件对普通平刃刀和仿生刀片进行有限元静力学分析，采用Rapid TA实用型分析仪对其切削力-变形特性进行了测试。有限元仿真结果表明，仿生刀片的力学性能更优，切削实验结果表明，该仿生叶片的最大切削力为137.51 N，比普通平刃刀片的最大切削力降低了12.17%。该仿生刀片的平均切削力为96.56 N，比普通平板刀片的平均切削力低11.58%。该仿生刀片的切削能耗为9.68 J，比普通平板刀片的切削能耗低11.92%。实验结果表明，该仿生刀片能有效降低切削力和能耗，仿生刀片更适合切割玉米茎秆。该研究将有助于玉米秸秆切割刀具和其他加工机械的开发。