Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 131 (2016) 29–39

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Computers and Electronics in Agriculture

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compag

Original papers

Simulation of seed motion in seed feeding device with DEM-CFD

coupling approach for rapeseed and wheat
Xiaolong Lei, Yitao Liao, Qingxi Liao ⇑
College of Engineering, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei 430070, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A numerical study of gas-solid flow in seed feeding device of air-assisted centralized metering system
Received 24 June 2016 was carried out by means of Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics
Received in revised form 30 September (CFD) coupling approach. In this model, discrete particles phase was applied by EDEM software and con-
2016
tinuum gas phase was described by ANSYS Fluent software. Effects of throat’s area, throat length, airflow
Accepted 5 November 2016
inlet velocity and seed feed rate were studied and analyzed in terms of gas field and seed movement.
Available online 18 November 2016
Simulation results showed that, throat’s area and airflow inlet velocity mainly affected airflow outlet
velocity and seed velocity of airflow direction which resulted from drag force, while seed movement
Keywords:
Air-assisted centralized metering system
was affected by throat length and seed feed rate slightly. The increase of throat area resulted in the
Seed feeding device decrease of seed velocity and pressure loss in a certain range. Seeds moved slowly and generated the phe-
DEM-CFD coupling approach nomenon of bounce and concentration for low airflow inlet velocities. With the airflow inlet velocity
Seed motion increased, resultant force and seed velocity developed. The proper airflow inlet velocity was 16–20 m/s
Airflow field and 20–24 m/s for rapeseed and wheat, respectively. It showed that DEM-CFD coupling approach is reli-
able as a tool for understanding the physical phenomenon of seed movement in airflow field. Numerical
simulation of seed motion based on DEM-CFD coupling approach can provide theoretical basis for devel-
oping operating performance of seed feeding device.
Ó 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Due to the advantages of safety, economy, convenience and

Rapeseed and wheat are important oil plant and food supply in
the middle-lower Yangtze area in China. They are grown in the
same season and their sowing dates and seeding processes are clo-
ser (Cong et al., 2014). The precision planter has performance with
precision seeding, high speed, good generality and high efficiency.
Centralized pneumatic planter which could be widely used in seed-
ing is capable of handling a wide range of seeds with different sizes
and shapes during travelling at high operating speed (H. Willard
et al., 1986; Kumar and Durairaj, 2000). Seed feeding device which
forms mixture of seeds and air is an important part of air-assisted
centralized metering device. Generally, seed feeding device include
two types with injector and Venturi tube. Previous research inves-
tigated gas-solid injector used as seed feeding device in centralized
pneumatic seeding system (Whitney and Porterfield, 1968; Chang
and Zhang, 2011; Myoung et al., 2007; Li et al., 2009). Despite Ven-
turi tube was widely used in industry, very limited studies are
available in the literature for particle motion in pneumatic seeding
system.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: leixl1989@163.com (Q. Liao).
clear physical interpretation, Venturi tube occurs in various indus-
trial applications, such as in pneumatic transport particles, circu-
lating fluidized beds and chemical reactors (Mergheni et al.,
2009; Silva et al., 2009). Venturi tube is based on Venturi effect
according to the differential pressure between throat and outlet
tube. The fundamental structure of Venturi is the throat (Ji et al.,
2015). Many investigators reported gas or fluid behavior and par-
ticle movement in the throat tube using numerical and experimen-
tal study. Efrain et al. (2014) have performed the CFD simulations
for Venturi-device effects on gas wells production. Some authors
used CFD simulation to produce gas-fluid flow through a Venturi
device and indicated that Venturi-device promoted a flow pattern
and increased the gas production in certain types of gas wells. Ji
et al. (2015) employed Venturi theory to study characteristics of
the jet tube with a rectangular opening. By analyzing the velocity
of different rectangular opening of a jet tube, the optimum size
of rectangular opening was obtained. Experimental studies
involved the pressure drop by varying the throat gas velocity and
liquid loading by Shekar (1998). Comparing the single-phase and
two-phase pressure loss in variable throat, the proper throat
parameters were achieved. Dalton et al. (2015) discussed effects
of mass flow rate, concentration of the volatile component in the

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2016.11.006
0168-1699/Ó 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
30 X. Lei et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 131 (2016) 29–39
Nomenclature
Fp resultant force (N)
Fpy force of Y-direction (N)
Fpz force of Z-direction (N)
vp resultant velocity (m/s)
liquid phase and inlet sub-saturation on axial distribution of static
pressure in a Venturi tube and found that two-phase in the throat
and downstream was sensitive to changes in the flow conditions.
The gas-particle and gas-water two-phase flow characteristics
were analyzed (Liu et al., 2014; Hasan and Lucas, 2011;
Mergheni et al., 2009; Yin et al., 2015) by experimental study.
Shang et al. (2014) employed Lagrangian algebraic slip mixture
model to analyze gas-solid flows.
Furthermore, Jitschin et al. (1999) tested the orifices and Ven-
turi tubes’ characteristics by varying diameter and inlet pressure
and Gamisans et al. (2004) presented gas entrainment and void
pressure for different Venturi tube throat. Effects of the ejector
geometry and operating conditions on hydraulic characteristics
with a horizontal flow ejector were investigated (Myoung et al.,
2007). Besides, how and why the phenomenon of the two phases
like wet gas in Venturi tube was explained by simulation (He
and Bai, 2012; Xu et al., 2014). As the particles have not only the
interactions with gas phase but also collisions with each other,
the flow phenomena of gas-solid flow are very complex.
With the development of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD),
it has been become the effective tool to simulate fluid flows and
descript the characteristics of flow field and reveal mechanism of
fluid phase (Li et al., 2012). Discrete Element Method (DEM) is
applied to study particle flow for understanding the fundamentals.
In order to descript the detailed dynamic information including
particle trajectories, transient forces acting on individual particles,
as well as between solid phase and gas phase, the computational
fluid dynamics-discrete element method (CFD-DEM) were com-
bined (Traore et al., 2015; Akhshik et al., 2015). The gas flow and
particle motion behavior were numerically studied by means of
the CFD-DEM approach (Yang et al., 2015; Peng et al., 2016;
Kuang et al., 2013). Akhshik et al. (2015) used the CFD-DEM model
to simulate cuttings transport behavior of drill pipe rotation. Tong
et al. (2013) examined the fluid flow and particles’ motion in com-
mercial dry powder inhalers. Coupled CFD-DEM model was
adopted to simulate the gas-solid flow characteristics in fibrous
media exposed to particle loading (Qian et al., 2014) and
1. Seed box, 2. Seed feeder, 3. Feeding device, 4. Flow control valve, 5. Air pump, 6. Double disk opener,
7. Distributor, 8. Pressurized tube, 9. Delivery tube of seeds, 10. Seed tube
Fig. 1. The structure of air-assisted centralized metering system.
vpy velocity of Y-direction (m/s)
vpz velocity of Z-direction (m/s)
wp resultant angular velocity (r/min)
wpx angular velocity of X-direction (r/min)
particle-laden flows in a turning flow (Akbarzadeh and Hrymak,
2016). Krause et al. (2015) investigated particle movement and
gas phase flow field for a lime shaft kiln using coupled three
dimensional DEM-CFD. In addition, DEM-CFD coupling approach
was utilized in many researches for studying particle dispersion
mechanism in the gas-solid flow (Iqbal and Rauh, 2016; Brosh
et al., 2014; Zhou et al., 2011; Liu et al., 2013, 2015; Zhao et al.,
2010). They found that the simulation results based on coupled
approach of DEM with CFD could well explain fluid and particle
motion mechanism which were consistent with experimental data.
Although there were some researches in Venturi tube, most pre-
vious studies have not considered dynamic behavior of particles,
especially for seeds in metering system. In order to optimize the
throat’s structure and gain proper operating parameters, multi-
phase flow models combining the discrete element method
(DEM) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were utilized in
this research. The model considers various kinds of movements
and interaction of particles with each other. In the models, parti-
cles are modeled as a discrete phase based on Newton’s laws of
motion and gas phase is treated as a continuum phase described
by the local averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The paper applied
the modeling of gas-solid flow to simulate particle motion process
of seed feeding device. Effects of throat’s area, throat length, air-
flow inlet velocity and seed feed rate were studied and analyzed
in terms of gas field and seed movement. Theoretical basis for
improving the design on seed feeding device of air-assisted cen-
tralized metering system was proposed in this paper.
2. Structure and working principle of seed feeding device
The structure of air-assisted centralized metering system was
shown in Fig. 1. The air-assisted centralized metering system was
composed of seed box, seed feeder, air pump, feeding device, flow
control valve, delivery tube of seeds, pressurized tube and distribu-
tor. Air was supplied by air pump passed flow control valve after
then pumped into feeding device. The bulk fluxes of airflow were
controlled by flow control valve. Seed feeder whose structure with
 X. Lei et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 131 (2016) 29–39
1. Air inlet tube, 2. Convergent, 3. Seeds inlet tube, 4. Throat, 5. Divergent, 6. Two-phase flow outlet tube
Fig. 2. Two dimensional sketch of feeding device.
staggered arrangement model-hole and combined conical-hole unit
provided continuous, uniform and variable seed flow for rapeseed
and wheat. The seed feed rate assured seeds’ quantity of seed
metering system. The seed stream from seed feeder was entered
into feeding device and met with airflow (Lei et al., 2015). Hence,
the feeding device was to utilize kinetic energy of a high velocity
gas jet to push seeds and to form gas-solid flow. When air and seeds
contacted in feeding device, the seeds may be dispersed by shearing
action of high velocity motive airflow. In gas-solid flow system of
seeds’ delivery tube, seeds were transported by airflow and pro-
cesses inducing, mixing and dispersion of seeds were accomplished.
After that, gas-solid flow passed pressurized tube and then pumped
into distributor. The two gas-solid streams of air and seeds were
separated into several rows seeds’ stream uniformly.
Feeding device which applied Venturi theory was the core com-
ponent of air-assisted centralized metering system. The two
dimensional sketch of feeding device was shown in Fig. 2. It is a
device without moving parts, in which the air was used as the
energy source to pump the seeds and created a fine mixing of
the gas-solid flow. The feeding device consisted of four sections,
namely air inlet tube, seeds inlet tube, throat (mixing chamber)
and two-phase flow outlet tube. The feeding device had a rectangu-
lar opening in the wall of the throat tube for seeds dropping. The
diameter of both air inlet and two-phase flow outlet tube was D
and the divergent angle of taper tube is h. The throat tube was rect-
angular shape whose width was w2, height was h and length was l.
The working principle of feeding device was that airflow entered
into inlet tube whose diameter was D and then got through the
throat while seeds were fed into the throat through seeds inlet
tube. The differential pressure was generated between air inlet
tube and throat. Hence, the pressure of the airflow decreased and
velocity increased. The seeds met with airflow and were taken
away by high velocity airflow in the throat.
The two-phase flow outlet tube included two sections, consist-
ing of taper and cylinder tube. The sectional area of outlet tube
increased gradually from the throat to outlet tube. Thus, suction
effect was generated as pressure difference. When gas-solid flow
entered into outlet tube, air and seeds could accomplish the pro-
cesses of dispersion, mixing and transportation along the outlet
tube. The velocity and pressure of the throat affected transporta-
tion and mixing performance. They were connected with structure
of throat, inlet and outlet tube. The affected parameters included of
air inlet diameter (D), throat width (w2), throat height (h), inlet air-
flow velocity (v1) and seed feed rate (q).
3. Basic parameters of feeding device and mathematical models
A number of structural and working parameters, such as inlet
airflow velocity, particle-gas mass ratio, air inlet diameter, seed
feed rate and throat section area might affect the seeds and airflow
characteristics.
31
3.1. Basic parameters of feeding device
3.1.1. Inlet airflow velocity
According to pneumatic conveying theory of particle (Chang
and Zhang, 2011), the outlet airflow velocity can be written as
pffiffiffiffiffiffi
t2 ¼ kL qp þ kd L ð1Þ
where t2 is outlet airflow velocity, kL is particle size coefficient, qp is
particle density, 103 kg/m3, kd is particle property coefficient, L is
the conveying tube length. When particle diameter ranged from
1 mm to 10 mm, the particle size coefficient had a range of 16–20
(Chang and Zhang, 2011). As diameters of rapeseed and wheat seed
within 4 mm, the particle size coefficient was chosen as 16. The par-
ticle density of rapeseed and wheat seed was 1060 and 1350 kg/m3
(Boac et al., 2010), respectively. The particle property coefficient
was (2–5)  105. As length of conveying tube was less than 2 m,
the effect of particle property coefficient on velocity could be
neglected. Herein, outlet airflow velocity of rapeseed and wheat
seed was 18.12 and 20.45 m/s with an allowance of 10%,
respectively.
3.1.2. Particle-gas mass ratio
Particle-gas mass ratio (w) was commonly utilized to quantify
the relative amount of the particle phase in gas phase. It was
defined as the ratio of particle mass flow rate to gas mass flow rate.
Gp
w¼ ð2Þ
Gg
where Gp and Gg were particle and gas mass flow rate, respectively.
According to actual agronomic requirements, Gp of rapeseed and
wheat seed had a range of 0.63–1.43 g/s and 10.36–23.31 g/s. The
particle-gas mass ratio (w) were from 0.1 to 1.0 as the gas-solid flow
was dilute phase.
3.1.3. Inlet airflow tube diameter
The gas mass flow rate affected particle and airflow velocity and
pressure in the tube. The particle motion in airflow field was chan-
ged finally. It could be expressed as:
pD2
Gg ¼ qg t2 ð3Þ
4
where qg = 1.205 kg/m3 was the air density. Combining Eq. (2) and
Eq. (3), resulting in
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
4Gp
D¼ ð4Þ
pwqg t2
Then, Gp and w were 23.31 g/s and 0.75 in the Eq. (4), respectively.
Eq. (4) indicated that air outlet diameter (D) was 41.44 mm. Consid-
ering the tube in the market, air diameter of inlet and outlet tube
(D) was revised to 42 mm.
32 X. Lei et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 131 (2016) 29–39

As the throat tube was rectangular shape, throat section area was force due to the particle rotation, Ip was the moment of the inertia
!
determined by throat width (w2) and height (h). The principle of of the particle, xp was the angular velocity, T the local torque on
Venturi effect was that air velocity and pressure changed with the !
the particle, tp was particle velocity, mp was particle mass, t was
change of section area aligning with airflow direction. As the section time.
area of throat was less than that of air inlet tube, the throat The drag force on seeds was calculated from the following
width (w2) was 30 mm and height (h) range was from 12 mm to equation:
24 mm.
! ! ! !
! 3 mp qg ðtg  tp Þjtg  tp j
FD ¼ CD ð10Þ
3.2. Mathematical models of gas-solid flow 4 qp dp
In order to analyze the gas-solid flow characteristics, the math- where CD is the drag coefficient calculated as given by Sommerfeld
ematical models were utilized to theoretically explain airflow and (2003).
particles behaviors in seed feeding device. The three dimensional 8 24
>
> Rep 6 1
model was prepared to analyze seeds flow in the gas stream based < Rep
on computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method. CD ¼ 24
ð1 þ 0:15Re0:687 Þ 1 < Rep 6 1000 ð11Þ
>
>
Rep p
The gas phase was considered as an incompressible fluid based : 5
0:44 1000 < Rep 6 2  10
on Eulerian-Langrangian approach as the seeds occupied a very
small space in seed feeding device. The seeds were treated as a col-
qg dp jtg  tp jmax
lection of individual particles whose movement was governed by Rep ¼ ð12Þ
applying Newton’s second law. lg
where qg was gas density, dp was particle diameter, lg was gas vis-
3.2.1. Gas phase model
cosity, Rep is particle Reynolds number.
The gas phase flow was delivered from the air inlet tube to !
throat tube. The gas phase which was treated as continuous phase The force of F GB was defined as the difference between particle
strictly follows the mass conservation law and momentum conser- gravity and buoyancy.
vation law (Akhshik et al., 2015). The governing equations of mass !
! qg !
and momentum conservation in an incompressible viscous fluid F GB ¼ mp 1  g ð13Þ
could be expressed as
qp
@ðeg qg Þ !
! where g is gravitational acceleration vector.
þ r  ðeg qg tg Þ ¼ 0 ð5Þ
@t The lift forces including shear lift force (Saffman force) and rota-
tional lift force (Magnus force) were perpendicular to the direction
!
@ðeg qg tg Þ ! ! ! of relative velocity between the particles and gas phase. The shear
þ r  ðeg qg tg  tg Þ ¼ eg rP þ eg r  s þ eg qg g  Rgp lift force exerted on particles was given by
@t
ð6Þ ! ! !
F Sa ¼ 1:615dp lg C Sa Re0:5
s ½jtg  tp j  xg  ð14Þ
where qg , tg , eg, P and s were air density, air velocity, volume frac-
and shear lift coefficient was:
tion, pressure and viscous stress tensor, respectively. Rgp was the (
momentum exchange between solid and gas phases due to forces ð1  0:3314c0:5 ÞeRep =10 þ 0:3314c0:5 Rep 6 40
exerted by airflow on all particles within the computational cell. C Sa ¼ ð15Þ
0:0524ðcRep Þ 0:5
Rep > 40
The Rgp was defined as
X
n where the particle Reynolds number of shear flow was defined by:
!
Rgp ¼ F p;i =DV ð7Þ
qg d2p j !
xg j
i¼1
ReS ¼ ð16Þ
! lg
where F p;i was the resultant force exerted on particle i, n was the
number of particles in the specific computational cell and DV was c was the ratio between transitional and rotational Reynolds num-
the volume of the cell. ber, xg was angular velocity of gas phase.
ReS
3.2.2. Particle motion equations c¼ ð17Þ
2Rep
The continuum gas phase and dispersed solid phase were cou-
pled in throat tube. The particle phase motion without collision The rotational lift force embodied relative motion between particle
was modeled using Lagrangian approach in which seeds were fol- and gas phase. It was expressed by:
lowed along their trajectories through the unsteady, non-uniform ! p 3 ! ! ! !
airflow field. The forces of drag force, gravity and buoyancy, Saff- F Ma ¼ dp qg ð xg  xp Þ  ðtg  tp Þ ð18Þ
8
man lift force and Magnus lift force were taken into accounted to
act on particle. The motion of particle within airflow field was gov-
erned by the force balance equation. 3.3. DEM-CFD coupling simulation procedures
!
dtp ! ! ! ! 3.3.1. DEM-CFD coupling simulation method
mp ¼ F D þ F GB þ F Sa þ F Ma ð8Þ
dt In the gas-solid coupling simulation, CFD technique and particle
motion was based on software of ANSYS Fluent 12.0 and EDEM 2.2
!
d xp ! (Engineering discrete element method, DEM Solutions Ltd), respec-
Ip ¼ T ð9Þ
dt tively. Fig. 3 showed that CFD software Fluent was coupled with
! ! discrete element method software EDEM. In ANSYS Fluent simula-
where F D was the drag force, F GB was the force due to gravity and tion, all differential governing equations were solved by applying
! !
buoyancy, F Sa was the Saffman lift force, F Ma was the Magnus lift finite volumes method and based on mass and momentum of the
 X. Lei et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 131 (2016) 29–39
Start Fluent and
import mesh
Setting and
initialization gas
field (t=0)
Start EDEM and
initialize solid
field and geometry
Compute gas field
Fig. 3. Flow chart of the DEM-CFD coupling.
fluid phase (Eqs. (5) and (6)). First, the airflow field was resolved by
CFD solver. When a stable situation was obtained, gas field from
CFD solver was transferred to DEM-CFD coupling interface which
imported computation of forces acting on each particle. Then, the
EDEM time step started at the end of fluid simulation time step.
The calculated interface forces were delivered to the EDEM solver
which computed the particle position, particle velocities and parti-
cle volume fraction until the end of CFD time step was reached. The
next, DEM-CFD coupling interface took the particle translational
and rotational motion data from the EDEM solver and computed
the volume fractions and momentum exchange in the mesh cell
of CFD. Finally, CFD solver used these data to solve the gas field
for updating the fluid flow domain. The CFD and EDEM solvers
entered into the cycles of the next time step until the airflow field
again converged to a stable solution.
3.3.2. Computational conditions and parameters
As an important basis of numerical simulation, the 3D model of
seed feeding device determined simulation results. The schematics
of computational grid and coordinate system for 3D model were
shown in Fig. 4. The tetrahedral CFD cells meshed by the software
of Workbench 12.0 were employed and there were 90,393 grids in
Fig. 4. Schematics of computational grids (3D view).
33
Update forces,
Calculate drag force, lift positions and particles
forces and gravity
Compute solid volume
fraction
Iterate to convergence Save
and detect
t=end
N End
the computational region with the minimum size limit of mesh
model of 1  105 m. In the boundary conditions setting, a
velocity-inlet and pressure-outlet were applied for the inlet and
outlet of the airflow in all the simulations. The motion of gas phase
was solved with the Standard k-e two equations turbulence model.
Walls were assumed to the material of aluminum alloy and their
positions were fixed. The Lagrangian coupling method was utilized
in EDEM-CFD coupling interface. The hard sphere model and
Hertz-Mindlin (no slip) model were chosen as particle model
and particles contact model in the EDEM software for rapeseed
and wheat seed. As EDEM requires a much smaller time step than
CFD, the EDEM and CFD time steps for satisfactory convergence
was selected as 5  106 s and 1  103 s for a total simulation
time of 2.0 s, respectively. The values of some main parameters
used in DEM-CFD coupling simulations were listed in Table 1.
3.3.3. The simulation design
Three seed feeding device of different types have been used in
the simulations. The structure of seed feeding device was intro-
duced in Fig. 2. The throat section determined by throat width
(w2) and height (h) affected the structure of convergent and diver-
gent. In order to obtain proper throat structure, different types
including throat section and length (l) were simulated. The changes
of seed feeding device parameters were shown in Table 2. After
gaining proper throat section parameters, effects of throat length
on outlet pressure and seed motion were investigated. The throat
length (l) consisted of four levels: 23 mm, 27 mm, 31 mm, and
35 mm. The length between inlet tube and convergent was
68 mm and length from divergent and outlet tube was 100 mm
in these simulations. The airflow inlet velocity used in the simula-
tions was 16 m/s.
As rapeseed and wheat seed has large difference in material
properties and seeding quantity of unit area, outlet pressure and
velocity and seed motion were analyzed under changes of airflow
inlet velocity and seed feed rate. The airflow velocity was 8 m/s,
12 m/s, 16 m/s and 20 m/s for rapeseed and 12 m/s, 16 m/s,
20 m/s and 24 m/s for wheat. The seeds were generated randomly
in the EDEM software and then fell into seeds’ inlet tube with a
height of 120 mm. The seed feed rate was 240 seeds/s, 360
seeds/s and 480 seeds/s in these simulations based on agronomic
requirements. The simulation design was shown in Table 3(see
Fig. 5).
34 X. Lei et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 131 (2016) 29–39

Table 1
Computational parameters used in the simulations.

Solid phase Parameter Value for rapeseed Value for wheat seed Value for aluminum alloy
Particle type Spherical Ellipsoid
Semi-axes (mm  mm  mm) 2.00  2.00  2.00 6.00  3.00  3.00
Density (kg/m3) 1060 1350 2700
Poisson’s ratio 0.25 0.42 0.30
Shear modulus (Pa) 1.1  107 5.1  107 2.7  1010
Parameter Value for rapeseed Value for wheat seed
Seed to seed Coefficient of restitution 0.60 0.42
Coefficient of static friction 0.50 0.35
Coefficient of rolling friction 0.01 0.05
Seed to aluminum alloy Coefficient of restitution 0.60 0.50
Coefficient of static friction 0.30 0.40
Coefficient of rolling friction 0.01 0.05
Solid time step (s) 5  106
Gas phase Fluid Air
Gravitational acceleration (m/s2) 9.81
Density (kg/m3) 1.225
Viscosity (kg/m/s) 1.7894  105
Fluid time step (s) 1  103

Table 2
The simulation parameters of different throat area.

Types w2  h (mm) h (°) l (mm)

Type 1 30  12 14 27
Type 2 30  18 11 27
Type 3 30  24 8.5 27

a. Rapeseed model b. Wheat seed model

Table 3 Fig. 5. 3D models of materials.
The simulation design of airflow velocity and seed feed rate.

Number Airflow velocity for Airflow velocity for Seed feed rate
rapeseed vgi (m/s) wheat seed vgi (m/s) fp (seeds/s)
1 8 12 240
2 12 16 360
3 16 20 480
4 20 24 /

4. Simulation results and discussion

4.1. Model validation

Fig. 6 presented numerical and experimental results of inlet and

outlet airflow velocities. The inlet and outlet airflow velocities
were measured using air speed sensor of a testing device of pneu-
matic system. The airflow outlet velocity was tested under various
inlet velocities. The EDEM parameters have been validated in com-
parison seed filling number between experiment and simulation
(Lei et al., 2016). Good agreement between the simulated results
and experimental data indicated that the proposed model can be
applied to investigate the seeds’ motion in airflow field of seed
feeding device.
In order to verify simulation performance further, seed’s motion
state in throat was achieved by the use of a high-speed camera. By
observing the image as shown in Fig. 7, seeds were pushed into
outlet tube intermittently and uniformly. Seed dispersion behavior
in the throat of simulation was similar to that of experiment. It
indicated that the predictions were reliable using DEM-CFD cou-
pling models and parameters in this research.
4.2. Effects of throat section on airflow pressure and velocity
The airflow pressure and velocity along axial position under dif-
ferent throat section were shown in Fig. 8 with the throat length of
Fig. 6. Comparison between experiment and simulation results.
27 mm. It can be conducted that the throat section influenced the
airflow pressure and velocity in seed feeding device. Due to airflow
acceleration, the pressure drop sharply and velocity rise were
observed in the convergent section. In the throat, the pressure
reached a minimum value because of airflow friction. The airflow
velocity was approximately constant in the throat. The airflow
pressure was recovered and velocity was decreased to a steady
value in the diverging section. The pressure loss of Type 1 was
the largest among that of the three types’ throat section. The air-
flow velocity from throat to outlet of Type 3 was observed smaller
than that of the other two types. Fig. 9 showed airflow velocity dis-
tribution in slice X = 0 mm. The maximal airflow velocity was
observed in the throat and velocity peaks located in the bottom
of both divergent section and outlet tube. It can be concluded that
Type 2 throat section had good performance with less pressure loss
and superior airflow velocity in the throat.
 X. Lei et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 131 (2016) 29–39 35

Fig. 7. Seed motion behavior. (a) shows image using high-speed camera, (b) shows image of the DEM-CFD coupling simulation.

(a) Effects of throat section on airflow pressure (b) Effects of throat section on airflow velocity

Fig. 8. Effects of throat section on airflow pressure and velocity in feeding device.

(a) Type 1 (b) Type 2 (c) Type 3

Fig. 9. Airflow velocity contour plots of different types throat sections.

(a) Type 1 (b) Type 2 (c) Type 3

Fig. 10. Rapeseed seed motion of different types throat sections.

The local behavior of seed motion can help to understand seed
motion in the airflow of seed feeding device. Fig. 10 showed the
local structure of seed motion in three types’ throat with 16 m/s
of airflow velocity and 240 seeds/s of seed feed rate. Markedly,
numerous seeds stream in seed inlet tube fall into the throat from
seed feed device and then were dragged along the Y axial direction
with intermittent seed. The seeds moved slowly in the seeds’ inlet
tube initially and accelerated in the throat section due to the drag
force. The seeds lay in the region of larger airflow velocity and the
seeds’ distance decreased with increasing throat section area.
Table 4 illustrated the direction and magnitude of mean seed’s
force, velocity and angular velocity. The resultant force and veloc-
ity was mainly composed of those of Y-direction and Z-direction,
respectively. While each seed was mainly rotated on the X-axis
direction. Little difference of both force and velocity of
Z-direction were observed due to the influence of gravity and
36 X. Lei et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 131 (2016) 29–39

Table 4
Mean forces, velocities acting on seeds of different types throat sections.

Types Fp (N) Fpy (N) Fpz (N) vp (m/s) vpy (m/s) vpz (m/s) wp (r/min) wpx (r/min)
3 3 4
Type 1 2.33  10 2.26  10 5.33  10 5.92 5.88 1.40 22751.2 22750.9
Type 2 1.26  103 1.24  103 2.14  104 6.06 5.94 1.68 18173.9 12660.2
Type 3 9.22  104 9.15  104 1.14  104 4.66 4.66 1.58 17165.0 17163.5

Fig. 11. Effects of throat length on airflow pressure and velocity in feeding device. Note: I, air inlet region; II, converging region; III, throat region; IV, diverging region; V,
outlet region.

Table 5
Mean force, velocity acting on seed of different throat length.

Throat length (mm) Fp (N) Fpy (N) Fpz (N) vp (m/s) vpy (m/s) vpz (m/s) wp (r/min) wpx (r/min)
23 1.43  103 1.39  103 2.79  104 5.22 5.21 1.52 23419.0 23404.7
27 1.26  103 1.24  103 2.14  104 6.06 5.94 1.68 18173.9 12660.2
31 1.31  103 1.30  103 1.56  104 6.45 6.41 1.51 16916.1 16915.3
35 1.10  103 1.09  103 1.40  104 6.01 5.99 1.44 21355.4 21350.8

Table 6
Mean force acting on seed and velocity of various airflow inlet velocity and seed feed rate.

vgi (m/s) fp (seeds/s) Fp (N) Fpy (N) Fpz (N) vp (m/s) vpy (m/s) vpz (m/s) wp (r/min) wpx (r/min) vgo (m/s) vgo-vp (m/s)
Rapeseed
8 240 3.95  104 3.82  104 9.61  105 2.01 1.93 1.47 4420.6 4419.0 9.92 7.91
8 360 3.97  104 3.86  104 1.07  104 2.51 2.45 1.45 5996.7 5706.6 9.92 7.41
8 480 3.07  104 2.94  104 9.93  105 2.78 2.75 1.33 9438.4 8000.8 9.92 7.14
12 240 7.56  104 7.47  104 1.40  104 3.87 3.85 1.51 12245.3 12243.4 14.21 10.34
12 360 7.96  104 7.76  104 1.81  104 3.73 3.71 1.43 13740.3 13736.3 14.21 10.48
12 480 8.57  104 8.37  104 1.85  104 4.22 4.21 1.41 14830.2 14787.4 14.21 9.99
16 240 1.31  103 1.30  103 1.56  104 6.45 6.41 1.51 16916.1 16915.3 18.10 11.65
16 360 1.44  103 1.36  103 1.75  104 5.76 5.73 1.54 21182.2 20996.9 18.10 12.34
16 480 1.23  103 1.25  103 1.88  104 5.35 5.32 1.43 15168.0 15164.3 18.10 12.75
20 240 1.58  103 1.55  103 2.72  104 6.56 6.33 1.76 11661.7 11657.8 22.62 16.06
20 360 1.90  103 1.85  103 2.54  104 5.42 5.25 1.66 15727.8 15726.3 22.62 17.20
20 480 1.70  103 1.68  103 2.14  104 6.28 6.15 1.54 22065.0 21757.6 22.62 16.34
Wheat
12 240 3.61  103 3.54  103 9.20  104 3.01 2.98 1.42 3191.6 2386.9 14.21 11.20
12 360 3.47  103 3.41  103 8.93  104 2.94 2.91 1.37 4102.9 3193.2 14.21 11.27
12 480 3.49  103 3.44  103 8.79  104 2.95 2.92 1.37 3663.9 2665.7 14.21 11.26
16 240 6.55  103 6.45  103 1.25  103 3.71 3.67 1.44 4219.4 3677.2 18.10 14.39
16 360 6.14  103 6.06  103 1.13  103 3.83 3.82 1.38 5396.0 4976.3 18.10 14.27
16 480 5.92  103 5.81  103 1.34  103 4.18 4.16 1.35 4259.8 3365.8 18.10 13.92
20 240 1.01  102 1.00  102 1.35  103 5.02 5.00 1.40 6156.5 4735.9 22.62 17.60
20 360 9.63  103 9.51  103 1.58  103 4.98 4.96 1.34 5334.1 4952.9 22.62 17.64
20 480 9.22  103 9.12  103 1.48  103 4.57 4.47 1.42 3228.2 2538.4 22.62 18.05
24 240 1.07  102 1.06  102 1.60  103 5.80 5.76 1.38 6893.0 5337.4 24.10 18.30
24 360 1.31  102 1.30  102 1.79  103 5.95 5.89 1.33 6616.2 4812.8 24.10 18.15
24 480 1.06  102 1.05  102 1.55  103 5.84 5.76 1.53 5135.6 3604.8 24.10 18.26

boundary. The Y-direction velocity of seed in the Type 2 was larger
than that in the other two types’ throat. This may be resulted from
the collision between seeds and wall in Type 1 and low airflow
velocity in Type 3. Thus, seeds were distributed uniformly in Type
2 throat with larger Y-direction velocity.
4.3. Impact of throat length on airflow pressure and velocity
Fig. 11 demonstrated the effects of throat length upon airflow
pressure and velocity for various periods including air inlet region,
converging region, throat region, diverging region and outlet
 X. Lei et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 131 (2016) 29–39 37

Fig. 12. Velocities fields of airflow and solid flow fields of (a) airflow velocity of 8 m/s, (b) airflow velocity of 12 m/s, (c) airflow velocity of 16 m/s, (d) airflow velocity of 20 m/
s and (e) airflow velocity of 24 m/s in the (left) velocity magnitude contour, (middle) rapeseed flow patterns, and (right) wheat seed flow patterns.

region with 16 m/s of airflow inlet velocity and 240 seeds/s of seed
feed rate. For various periods with Type 2 throat section, throat
lengths affected airflow pressure and velocity slightly. However,
with increasing throat length, the influence of the pressure drop
became slight. A comparison has been made among the results of
seed’s motion and force acting on seed of various throat lengths
shown in Table 5. The Y-direction velocity of throat length with
31 mm was larger than that of throat length 23 mm, 27 mm and
35 mm. For the seeding considered, the throat length of around
31 mm was better in this research.
4.4. Impact of airflow velocity and seed feed rate on seed motion
In order to verify effects of airflow inlet velocity and seed feed
rate on the seed motion performance, the averaged force acting
on seed, velocity and angular velocity of seed were obtained as
shown in Table 6. The resultant force acting on both rapeseed
and wheat seed was increased consistently which means that a lar-
ger resultant force was needed with the increase of the airflow
inlet velocity. The Y-direction force mainly resulted in the increase
of resultant force and Z-direction force kept stable with increasing
the airflow inlet velocity. The reason may be that larger airflow
inlet velocity caused larger drag force.
Table 6 also showed that the velocity of seed and Y-direction
velocity had an increasing trend with the increase of airflow inlet
velocity from 8 m/s to 16 m/s for rapeseed and then kept stable
generally from 16 m/s to 20 m/s. For wheat seed, the velocity of
seed and Y-direction velocity were increased gradually, but Y-
direction of wheat seed was lower than that of rapeseed under
the same airflow inlet velocity. The Z-direction velocity changed
38 X. Lei et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 131 (2016) 29–39
slightly within a steady range. Since the seed volume fraction in
this research was less than 10%, the gas phase affected by the seed
was neglected. Thus, the airflow outlet velocity kept stable under
the identical airflow inlet velocity. The variations of forces acting
on seed and seed’s velocity with the change of airflow inlet velocity
were similar for different seed feed rates. The relative velocity
between airflow outlet velocity and seed velocity increased with
the increase of airflow inlet velocity for rapeseed and increasing
rate increased sharply when airflow inlet velocity was larger than
16 m/s. But for wheat seed, the relative velocity increased first with
the increase of airflow inlet velocity and then reached a relatively
steady value when it was more than 20 m/s. A suitable airflow inlet
velocity can be potentially selected to minimize the relative veloc-
ity and develop seed velocity. The proper airflow inlet velocity was
16 m/s and 20 m/s, respectively.
The airflow inlet velocity was a key factor affecting seed motion
status. Fig. 12 depicted airflow velocity fields and seed patterns for
different airflow inlet velocities, 8 m/s, 12 m/s, 16 m/s, 20 m/s,
24 m/s and for constant seed feed rate of 240 seeds/s. As it was
seen in Fig. 12, the distribution area of airflow fields was the same
and the increase in airflow velocity lead to increase in the airflow
velocity of outlet tube obviously. Furthermore, the larger airflow
velocity located in the lower part of throat and outlet tube where
the seeds’ stream mainly concentrated.
The seeds collided with the tube in the throat section obviously
when airflow inlet velocities less than 12 m/s and 16 m/s for rape-
seed and wheat seed, respectively. The drag force at lower airflow
inlet velocity was small, resulting in seeds colliding with wall
under gravity and phenomena of bounce. Besides, decreasing the
airflow inlet velocity increased the solid-air ratio in the outlet tube.
Since the drag force reduced, seeds moved slowly. The phe-
nomenon of deposited seeds was more obvious for lower inlet air-
flow velocity. When airflow inlet velocity reached 16 m/s, rapeseed
moved along the bottom wall of Y-direction continuously and uni-
formly. It should be noted that the increase of airflow inlet velocity
represented an increase in adjacent seeds’ distance. As the seed’s
mass of wheat seed was larger than that of rapeseed, adjacent
seeds’ distance was smaller for wheat seed than for rapeseed.
Clearly, seeds can be pumped into the outlet tube with nearly iden-
tical interval at the airflow inlet velocity of 16–20 m/s and 20–
24 m/s for rapeseed and wheat seed, respectively.
5. Conclusions
In this research, DEM-CFD coupling approach has been pre-
sented to simulate effects of throat section’ structure, throat’s
length, airflow inlet velocity and seed feed rate on seed motion
characteristics in the airflow filed. The DEM-CFD coupling model
can well describe the movement of seeds in seed feeding device,
leading to the following conclusions:
(a) The flow characteristics of airflow and seeds and forces acting
on seed in feeding device were analyzed. The pressure drop
sharply and velocity rise were observed in convergent section
and larger airflow velocity was maintained in the throat. The
seeds moved slowly in seeds’ inlet tube initially and then
accelerated in the throat section due to the drag force. It is
shown that drag force mainly promotes seed movement.
(b) The throat section’s area significantly affects seeds’ move-
ment and airflow field in seed feeding device. The increase
of throat section’ area results in the decrease of seed velocity
and pressure loss. The Type 2 throat structure has good per-
formance with less pressure loss and superior airflow veloc-
ity in the throat. Besides, impact of throat length on airflow
field and seed movement is slight.
(c) Airflow inlet velocity has more influence on forces acting on
seed, velocity and relative velocity between airflow and seed
than seed feed rate. Seed moves slowly and generates the
phenomena of bounce and concentration for lower airflow
inlet velocities. The larger the airflow inlet velocity is, the
larger resultant force and seed velocity are. The proper air-
flow inlet velocity is 16–20 m/s and 20–24 m/s for rapeseed
and wheat seed, respectively.
The DEM-CFD model has been utilized to better understand
seed movement mechanism in airflow field and to compare differ-
ent throat structure. The model has been shown to be reliable as a
tool for understanding the physical phenomenon of seed move-
ment in gas phase and can analyze the source of the difference.
Numerical simulation of seed motion based on DEM-CFD coupling
approach can improve operating performance of seed feeding
device.
Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (51575218, 51275197 and
51405180) and the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in
the Public Interest (201503118-06). Thanks for all your support.
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