Combined finite element and multi-body dynamics analysis of effects of hydraulic cylinder movement on ploughshare of Horizontally Reversible Plough

• The effects of HC movements during tillage on share-point of HRP were assessed.
• A combined FEA and MDA approach was used.
• HC movements have no adverse effects on the service life of the ploughshare.

Hydraulic Cylinder (HC), one of the key components of Horizontally Reversible Plough (HRP), takes the responsibilities for the commuting soil tillage of HRP. The dynamic behaviors of HC surely affect the tilling performances of HRP. Based on our previously related work, this paper further addresses the effects of HC movements during tillage on ploughshare, especially at share-point, of HRP. For HC, uniform motion was considered in this study. A combined finite element and multi-body dynamics analysis (MDA) was implemented to assess both tillage kinematics and kinetics of the ploughshare. These numerical predictions were primarily involved in five different HC movement velocities and two actual HRP tilling scenarios, respectively, where loading data due to the HC movements were obtained from an MDA and applied to load a finite element modal of the ploughshare. Our results show that the importance of performing MDA as a preliminary step FEA to obtain an insight into the actual stress and strain variations at the share-point. Our findings demonstrate that the different movements of HC have no adverse effects on the service life of the ploughshare though they result in the maximum stress and strain at the share-point during HRP tillage.