Effects of Bionic Geometric Structure Press Rollers on Reducing Rolling Resistance and Adhesion against Soil

Press roller is a commonly used tool for compacting soil to a suitable compactness. An ideal press roller should be able to ensure a low adhesion and rolling resistance in a suitable compaction. However, in tillage operation, the phenomenon of soil adhesion occurred widely when press roller worked. In this research, the ventral surface of dung beetles was taken as the bionic prototype and bionic ridged geometric structure press rollers were designed using ultra high molecular weight polyethylene material. Under the same testing conditions, press rollers with different geometrical details were conducted to examine the effect of ridge section diameter, ridge height to diameter ratio and the number of ridges along the circumference of the rollers on rolling resistance and soil adhesion. The results showed that the all bionic rollers exhibited lower adhesion than a conventional roller. While, only ridged bionic roller with suitable size could reduce rolling resistance. The bionic roller with the ridge diameter of 40 mm, dimensionless ratio of height to diameter of 0.5, the number of 12 indicated the lowest resistance in this work, 25 % lower than conventional roller.