Modelagem e validação de um cafeeiro por elementos finitos utilizando escaneamento 3D e análise modal experimental

Abstract

Coffee is one of the most significant products in the Brazilian economy, with the country being the world's largest coffee exporter. Studies focused on simulations in the stages of mechanized harvesting have been of great interest, both in academia and in the agro-industry. In this context, the primary objective of this work is to obtain a computational model of coffee branches, employing scanning techniques and experimental validation through modal analysis. To achieve this, branches of a Red Catuai coffee plant were scanned and computationally simulated to obtain a computational model representing the static and dynamic behavior of the branches. Prior to this, an evaluation was performed to assess how representative the scanned model was compared to experimentally obtained data. The specific mass and elasticity modulus of the selected branches were obtained in the laboratory and used as parameters for the simulations. To obtain the results of static and modal analyses, the geometric models of the branches were simulated using the Finite Element Method (FEM). Validation of the adopted procedure was carried out through experiments, which confirmed that the first three vibration modes of the tested branches were similar, with deviations ranging from 2 to 20%. The adopted statistical analysis indicated a tendency of similar behavior between the simulated branches and the experimental results. Based on the results obtained, it was concluded that it is possible to predict the dynamic and static behavior of coffee branches through three-dimensional scanning and numerical simulations using FEM. This can be considered a technological advancement, as simplified models based on geometric coordinates are typically used.