Working Mechanism and Parameter Optimization of a Crushing and Impurity Removal Device for Liquid Manure

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The author of this article designed a crushing and impurity removal device for liquid manure , and building the corresponding test bench. The optimal working parameters were obtained through single factor experiment and response surface experiment. The development of this equipment can deal with impurities in liquid manure and provide good conditions for the subsequent fertilization operations which has good research significance.

The writing of the article is rigorous, clear, and standardized. The experimental scheme of this paper is reasonable, the data is detailed and the analysis is appropriate. The paper is complete in structure, detailed in content, and the results are of practical value. At the same time, there are also some problems in the paper, as follows:

1.    Lines 73,74“the key objective of the efficient use of the drip irrigation system is to remove all impurities from biogas slurry”， It is impossible to remove all impurities from biogas slurry，please check and confirm.

2.    The first two paragraphs of the introduction are too long, please simplify them according to the research content and research purpose.

3.    Figure 4, Please mark the names corresponding to the three cutter heads.

4.    Lines 499, 500, the sentences are inconsistent, please check and confirm.

5.    There are a few references that are not properly cited, please confirm and change.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

1. As stated in lines 48-49 of the introduction “Liquid manure has a high viscosity and complex composition and contains a lot of animal hair, straw fiber, and a small number of stones, metals, plastics, and other impurities”, does this article seem a bit biased to use only straw for the study.

2. The abstract indicates that this study can also intercept high-density impurities, but this is only described qualitatively in the text, suggesting additional relevant analyses and tests.

3. There is a clerical error at quotation [18-19] in line 204 of the text.

4. The format of the letters in the formula and the text should be unified, whether it is italicized, whether it is a corner mark...

5. The three variables in the horizontal coordinates of Figure 8 are independent of each other, and it is suggested that they could be represented by bar graphs; the graph has only a few test data, and it feels like only once test was done.

6. In Figures 9, 10 and 11, the test data are less, was only one test done?

7. The clarity of Figure 12 needs to be improved.

8. It is suggested to refer more to the latest relevant studies.

9. The format of references should be uniform, such as citations [5], [11], etc.; an additional "." is written in reference [15].

10. The font format of the figures in Table 4 should be uniform.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The work "Working mechanism and parameter optimization of a crushing  and impurity removal device for liquid manure" is interesting with many experimental and analytical results.

The authors created a test platform and conducted a one-way experimental study. The influence of each of the considered factors on the qualification index, energy consumption of straw shredding was obtained and the optimal values of the factors were determined. Cutter shaft speed, cutting play and cutter edge angle have been optimized. The response surface method was used to optimize multivariate data and a mathematical model of the relationship between response values and test factors was created, which allowed for the optimal combination of parameters. The result of this work can be further developed.

Attention:

In the introduction, the word "4 billion tons was used. In some countries this means 10 ^ 9 short scales and in others 10 ^ 12 long scales. A better solution is therefore digital recording, e.g. 4,000,000,000 tons.

The manuscript has been carefully prepared.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

A crushing and impurity removal device for liquid manure was designed and the main structural parameters of the device were determined based on the low disqualification rate and energy consumption. The MS was well organized and the results were reasonable.

1. How to prevent the liquid manure flow out from the impurity outlet？

2. What kind of equipment did you used to measure the shear force? Please give more detail information on this measurement.

3. To determine the shear force of straw, rice straw was selected in this MS. As we all know, there are other kinds of straw, such as corn straw, wheat straw, and other straws. Why choose the rice straw?

4. Please give the detail shapes and blade angles of blades by figure？

5. Why the elastic coefficient of the wave spring and the deformation of the wave spring were selected as 8.43 and 8 mm, respectively?

6. How to ensure that the straw enters the cutter heads along the axis? If the straws were parallel to the cutter heads, how to cut the straw?

7. Which is the involute-type cutter head, the spoke-type cutter head, and the circular hole cutter head in figure 4?

8. After careful reading, the readers did not know the size of the cutter, cutter head, and other main parts?

9. All the figures should be cited in the text.

10. All the results should be presented as average±standard deviation.

11. The sentences ‘We…’ should be changed.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

 I agree to accept in  present form.