The vibrational response of simulated Ginkgo biloba fruit based on their frequency spectrum characteristics

PLoS One. 2020 Jul 23;15(7):e0235494. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235494. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

The most effective method for harvesting forest fruit is the mechanical vibration harvesting method. During the forced vibration process, the fruit will be shed from the tree when the inertia of the fruit is greater than the fruit's pedicel retention force. In order to study the movement response characteristics of the Ginkgo biloba fruit in depth, for a small Ginkgo biloba fruit tree, the frequency curve of the fruit tree had been obtained in this paper, based on the pulse hammer excitation method, and four resonant frequencies and four trough point frequencies, in the frequency range of 10 Hz~25 Hz, were determined as the test excitation frequency. Through a comparison test between the simulated fruit and the Ginkgo biloba fruit, both the simulated fruit and the real Ginkgo biloba fruit demonstrated good response consistency, and the results had shown that the simulated fruit could be used to replace the Ginkgo biloba fruit. The acceleration response of the resonant frequency and the trough point frequency for two test points of the two primary branches had also been analyzed. It was found that the resonant frequency caused an obvious harmonic response. For the same frequency, the fruit at some points produced a very strong vibrational response, while at other points the fruit was almost stationary. Therefore, it was difficult for a fruit tree to completely shed all its fruit through excitation at a single frequency. It was more difficult to induce a strong vibrational response of fruit on branches of higher stiffness. On the contrary, it was easier to induce a strong vibrational response on more flexible branches regardless of the resonant frequency or the trough point frequency excitation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biomechanical Phenomena
  • Fruit*
  • Ginkgo biloba*
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Vibration*

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Plan of China (Grant No. 2016YFD0701501), the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. KYCX17_0862).