Coupled mass interactions in plant tissues under frost conditions

Abstract

AbstractFrost‐hardy plant tissues have developed strategies to cope with frost events without damage. This is a very interesting feature with regard to technical applications in construction industry, where frost damage is still a major concern. This contribution introduces a biologically inspired macroscopic modelling approach based on the Theory of Porous Media (TPM) to describe the coupled thermo‐hydro‐mechanical processes in plant tissues. The focus is, in particular, on the mass interactions within the plant tissue under frost conditions, which are the ice formation in the intercellular space and the dehydration of the tissue cells, which is a crucial property for frost‐resistance. A numerical example illustrates the coupling of these mass interactions.