Abstract
Plant petioles and stems are hierarchical cellular structures, displaying structuralfeatures defined at multiple length scales. The current work focuses on the multi-scalemodelling of plant tissue, considering two orders of structural hierarchy, cell wall and tissue.The stiffness of plant tissue is largely governed by the geometry of the tissue cells, thecomposition of the cell wall and the structural properties of its constituents. The cell wallis analogous to a fiber reinforced composite, where the cellulose microfibril (CMF) is theload bearing component. For multilayered cell wall, the microfibril angle (MFA) in themiddle layer of the secondary cell wall (S2 layer) largely affects the longitudinal stiffnessfor values up to 40o. The MFA in turn influences the overall wall stiffness. In this work,the effective stiffness of a model system based on collenchyma cell wall of a dicotyledonousplant, the Rheum rhabarbarum, is computed considering generic MFA and volume fractions.At the cellular level, a 2-D Finite Edge Centroidal Voronoi tessellation (FECVT) has beendeveloped and implemented to generate the non-periodic microstructure of the plant tissue.The effective elastic properties of the cellular tissue are obtained through finite elementanalysis (FEA) of the Voronoi model coupled with the cell wall properties. The stiffness ofthe hierarchically modeled tissue is critically important in determining the overall structuralproperties of plant petioles and stems.
Highlights
IntroductionFrom a structural point of view, a plant exhibits remarkable mechanical properties
Plants are one of the major kingdoms in biology
The multiscale hierarchical approach can be applied effectively to simulate the stiffness of various plant tissues
Summary
From a structural point of view, a plant exhibits remarkable mechanical properties. Among their organs, the petiole that attaches the leaf to the stem is one of the significant load bearing structures of a plant. The petiole supports the leaf against gravity and allows it to be exposed to the sun. The petiole provides mechanical support against the weight of the leaf and against environmental factors, such as rain and wind, resisting both bending and twisting load [1]. The petiole of Rheum rhabarbarum (rhubarb) plant, shown, is an example of a cantilever beam that must resist combined loads including bending and twisting. The petiole’s flexural and torsional stiffness are largely influenced by its overall geometric properties and the stiffness of its constituents, including tissues and cell walls
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