CNH-Industrial
Leon Claeysstraat 3a
8120 Zedelgem
België
https://www.cnhind-belgium.be
jobs.zedelgem@cnhind.com

Contact
Pieter-Jan Declercq – pieter-jan.declercq@cnhind.com

Category
Mechanics

Context

A Combine Harvester is an agricultural machine that harvests crops like wheat, barley, corn, canola, … The harvester is taking in the crop material through a header and processes it to separate the plants in to different material streams, straw, grain and chaff. The cleaning system of the combine harvester is the location where grains and chaff are separated, making use of mechanical and pneumatic actions.

CNHIndustrial in Zedelgem is developing and manufacturing Combine Harvesters, Forage Harvesters and Large Square Balers. Within CNHI, Zedelgem is recognized as a center of excellence for product design.

Objectives

  • The combine harvester cleaning system involves complex interaction between crop and air. This complex interaction is simulated using two-way coupling between CFD and DEM. A thorough investigation usually involves considering one model at a time and build the complexity in stages. This thesis will investigate critical model parameters for combine cleaning system considering only air flow and motion of the cleaning shoe. The model development will start from a simplified small-scale model and develop in to a combine cleaning system.
  • In this thesis, you will learn to:
    • Analyze airflow in the combine harvester
    • Work with CFD software to simulate the air flow inside the combine
    • Simulate a complex harvester
    • Evaluate new concepts for performance and feasibility.