Validation and Calibration of Maize Seed–Soil Inter-Parameters Based on the Discrete Element Method
, Qiu Dong 1, Jianqun Yu 2, Yang Wang 2, Yulong Chen 1, Mingwei Li 1, Wenjun Wang 1,*, Yajun Yu 2,* and Jun Yuan 3,*(This article belongs to the Section Agricultural Biosystem and Biological Engineering)
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript’s (MS) topic deals with analyzing the contact process between maize seeds and soil. I think exploring a mechanical model suitable for simulating the contact process between maize seeds and soil, and the selection of parameters between heterogeneous particles (maize seed and soil particles) is interesting and necessary for increasing the effectiveness of agricultural machines such as seeders. Therefore, it is new scientific evidence enough to be published in a qualified international scientific journal such as Agronomy.
MS is informative and easy to understand. Contains potentially useful information for readers. MS is mostly well organized and presented.
Finally, to provide some feedback to the authors, I list the following minor comments and/or concerns:
Line 14: “Os Liangyu 99” variety of maize? Should be mentioned.
Line 26: Some values on validation test results can be presented here.
Line 113: Explain the abbreviation when mentioned the first time.
Line 187: Which software was used for the simulation? Should be mentioned here.
Lines 229-232, figure 10: should be transferred to Materials and Methods section. The main dimensions of seeds should be presented, and the number of measured seeds should be given.
Table 3: What are the X8-X11 Virtual Parameters? Explanation is needed here.
Tables 3 and 4: What is the value of parameters for 0
Table 7: It is not clear how did you get the angle of repose for different parameters of A2, X4, and X5. Have you measured in the laboratory or got from simulations?
Lines 337-338: The test and simulation results should be compared statistically.
Line 379: Some practical results or suggestions should be added here.
Minor editing of English language required
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Title: replace 'a' by 'the'
Abstrast: please add more results, especially numerical results
Introduction: existing studies on soil-seed simulation need to be included
Materials and methods:
seed and soil particle composition needs to be justified? If they are adopted from previous studies, please clearly cite the studies so readers have more information on model development; when was the angle of repose measured in the simulation? please elaborate.
Figure 10 is totally unnecessary
Table 1: no need to show individual test results, please use statistics, such as mean and SD
It is very weak to conclude that the EEPA model is suitable since no comparison with other models was ever made. Did the authors try with other models, if so, please include the results as well.
extensive proofreading and editing is required
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
thanks for the revision
proofreading would be necessary
