To improve the accuracy of discrete element simulation parameters for the mechanized picking and collection of pears, the study calibrated the simulation parameters of pears by the method of combining a physical experiment and simulation. Based on the intrinsic parameters of four kinds of pears (Snow pears, Crisp pears, Huangguan pears and Qiuyue pears), their simulation models were constructed by the Hertz-Mindlin with a bonding model. The simulation parameters between pears and the contact material (PVC, EVA foam material) were calibrated by the methods of free fall collision, inclined sliding and rolling, respectively. The experiments of pear accumulation angle were carried out. It was obtained to process the image of pears with Matrix Laboratory software. In order to determine the optimal value interval of influencing factors of the pear accumulation angle, the steepest ascent experiment was carried out. Considering the coefficient of collision recovery, the coefficient of static friction and the coefficient of rolling friction between pears, five-level simulation experiments of the pear accumulation angle were designed for each factor by the method of orthogonal rotation combination. The regression model of the error between the measured value and the simulated value of the pear accumulation angle was established, and the influence of three factors on the pear accumulation angle was analyzed. The results showed that the static friction coefficient and rolling friction coefficient between pears have significant effects on the pear accumulation angle. Therefore, the optimal model of minimum error was constructed according to constraint condition, and the coefficient of collision recovery, coefficient of static friction and coefficient of rolling friction between pears were obtained. The accumulation angle verification experiments were carried out by the method of bottomless barrel lifting. The results showed that the relative error between the simulated and measured accumulation angle of four kinds of pears were 1.42%, 1.68%, 2.19% and 1.83%, respectively, which indicated that the calibrated simulation parameters were reliable. The research can provide a basis for the design and parameters optimization of harvesting machinery of pears.

The working environment of agricultural knives is bad, which makes the knives wear out easily. A wear resistant layer of AlCoCrFeNi high entropy alloy (HEA) reinforced by tungsten carbide (WC) was prepared by laser cladding on one side of the cutting edge of a 65 Mn silage knife. Both the effects of WC addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of AlCoCrFeNi (WC)_x (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 in mass percentage) alloys were investigated. All experimental alloys displayed a crystalline structure of simple body centered cubic (BCC). The hardness of the cladding layer increases with the increase of WC content, and the hardness value enhances from 740 HV0.2 to 1060 HV0.2. A self-grinding edge was formed during working for the cladded knives. The cutting quality can be improved and the service life of agricultural knives can be increased meanwhile. The weight loss rate of untreated knives was about 2.64 times that of the cladded knives after a 76 h field experiment.

Acoustic metamaterial, which can prohibit effectively the elastic wave propagation in the bandgap frequency range, has broad application prospects in the vibration and noise reduction areas. The Lindstedt–Poincaré method was utilized to analyze the dispersion curves of nonlinear metamaterial with a pure Duffing oscillator. The first‐order perturbation solutions of acoustic and optical branches were obtained. Both the starting and cutoff frequencies of the bandgap are determined consequently. It was found that the soft/hard characteristics of pure Duffing oscillators could lead to the lower/upper movement of the starting and cutoff frequencies of the bandgap. By further researching the degraded linear system, the conclusion that actual nonlinear metamaterial bandgap region is wider than effective negative mass region is drawn and that both mass and stiffness ratio effect on the starting frequency is obtained. Effective positive mass can also lead to the vibration attenuation in bandgap. For nonlinear metamaterial, the translation effect of the external excitation amplitude on the bandgap range and the zero mass at the nonlinear bandgap cutoff frequency were discussed, and all above conclusion are identified by numerical analysis.

The study of the bifurcation, random vibration, chaotic dynamics, and control of laminated composite beams are research hotspots. In this paper, the parametric random vibration of an axially moving laminated shape memory alloy (SMA) beam was investigated. In light of the Timoshenko beam theory and taking into consideration axial motion effects and axial forces, a random dynamic equation of laminated SMA beams was deduced. The Falk’s polynomial constitutive model of SMA was used to simulate the nonlinear random dynamic behavior of the laminated beam. Additionally, the numerical of the probability density function and power spectral density curves was obtained through the Monte Carlo simulation. The results indicated that the large amplitude vibration character of the beam can be caused by random perturbation on axial velocity.

Al_1.8CrCuFeNi₂ high-entropy alloy coatings with different TiC contents were prepared using laser cladding. The effect of TiC on the microstructure, hardness and wear resistance of the coatings was investigated. It was found that the phase structure of the coating with 10 wt.% TiC was a single BCC phase with no other precipitated phase. When 20 wt.% TiC was added, the phase structure of the coating was a BCC phase and TiC phase. When the TiC content increased to 30 wt.%, more TiC-reinforcing phase was formed. With the increase in the TiC content, the hardness of the high-entropy alloy coating was enhanced and the wear loss clearly decreased, which was closely related to the change in the coating structure. The addition of TiC to high-entropy alloys plays the role of fine-grain strengthening and dispersion strengthening.