Dr Marcello Precoppe, Senior Lecturer at Harper Adams University will be delivering a lecrure on Multiphysics Simulation and its applications in agricultural engineering with examples from post-harvest and agri-food systems.
The presentation covers the combined use of multiphysics simulation and participatory design in the development of agricultural and food processing machinery for rural communities in low-income countries. It will open by explaining what multiphysics simulation is and why it is particularly valuable in this context, before moving through a series of concrete case studies.
The case studies span several continents. In Thailand, the work focused on a litchi dryer developed for Hmong communities in the northern uplands. In Peru, a machine was developed with an indigenous Amazonian community to enable local fish feed production. In Kenya, a solar-powered sweet potato storage unit was designed, and in Zanzibar a solar-powered fish dryer was developed for coastal fishing communities. A substantial part of the work addressed cassava processing in Africa, where cassava must be processed within approximately 48 hours of harvest. This included the development of peeling machines, presses, graters, dryers, and mills for smallholder use.
Across all projects, multiphysics simulation was applied from the earliest design stages through to virtual prototype testing, enabling rapid exploration of design alternatives, improved stakeholder communication, and substantially reduced physical prototyping time. Participatory design ran alongside simulation throughout, with each project involving the intended user communities and a local equipment manufacturer to ensure the machines matched community requirements in terms of capacity, cultural appropriateness, and local manufacturability. The presentation will be experience-based, offering an account of how both approaches function together in practice, the tangible benefits achieved, and the challenges encountered.
Marcelo Precoppe is Reader in Engineering at Harper Adams University, where he leads the Collaborative Simulation Lab and the Engineering Knowledge Exchange Team. His research focuses on multiphysics simulation and participatory design applied to agricultural machinery and food processing systems. He has led international projects across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and his current work addresses automation challenges in UK agriculture. He holds expertise in Finite Element Analysis, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Discrete Element Method, Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics, and Multi-Body Dynamics.
