The laws of influence of different factors have been analyzed in order to enhance the working efficiency and fatigue life of the cleaning element in brush shape of the sugarcane harvester. Based on the principle of orthogonal experiment design,the virtual-orthogonal-experimental analysis for the cleaning element is carried out on the finite element analysis (FEA) software-ANSYS after analyzing the nonlinear structural behavior in the working procedure.The results are analyzed with the overall balancing method,and then the optimal combination is got,which is made up of different levels of different factors.Also the optimal combination of design parameters of the cleaning element received from the virtual experimental analysis is conducted an experiment to confirm that the virtual analysis model and results are right,and the effect of factors on the function of the cleaning element is obtained by more analysis and further optimizing. The laws of influence of different factors have been analyzed in order to enhance the working efficiency and fatigue life of the cleaning element in brush shape of the sugarcane harvester. Based on the principle of orthogonal experiment design, the virtual-orthogonal-experimental analysis for the cleaning element is carried out on the finite element analysis (FEA) software-ANSYS after analyzing the nonlinear structural behavior in the working procedure. and results from the overall balancing method, and then the optimal combination is got, which is made up of different levels of different factors. Also the optimal combination of design parameters of the cleaning element received from the virtual experimental analysis is conducted an experiment to confirm that the virtual analysis model and results are right, and the effect of factors on the function of the cleaning element is obtained by more analysis and further optimizing.