Application of Finite Element Analysis in Modeling of Bionic Harrowing Discs.

Ansys software was used to carry out three-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) for biomimetic design of harrowing discs based on the body surface morphology of soil burrowing animals like dung beetle () which have non-smooth units such as convex domes and concave dips. The main objective was to find out the effects of different biomimetic surface designs on reducing soil resistance hence the horizontal force acting on the harrowing disc during soil deformation was determined. In this FEA, soil deformation was based on the Drucker-Prager elastic-perfectly plastic model which was applied only at the lowest disc harrowing speed of 4.