Geometric modeling of a coffee plant for displacements prediction

•Mechanical properties of coffee plants were obtained from experiments.•Proposed methodology obtained displacements in ten branches of a coffee plant.•Results showed the potentiality of the methodology for machine optimization.

Coffee plants can present structural problems during semi-mechanized and mechanized harvesting such as excessive defoliation and breaking branches. For this reason, studies of mechanical response of a coffee plant can help the development of more optimized machines. The main objective of this study is the modeling of a coffee plant for its mechanical behavior evaluation by using the Finite Element Analysis. The presented paper includes modeling, numerical simulations and experimental tests from a Coffea arabica L. plants. Firstly, it was necessary to create a coffee tree geometry based on pieces of a real tree using 3D scanning process. The coffee tree geometry together with experimental data provided materials properties of the wood plant which are used for displacements prediction via Finite Element Analysis. In order to validate the methodology, simulated results were compared to a real plant behavior under static load. Results presented consistent values from the three-dimensional modeling of a coffee plant which demonstrated the potentiality for new applications.