Abstract
The paper presents an approach to natural plant stems numerical modelling in a three-point bending test. Introduced subject was connected with elaborating more efficient systems for harvesting energetic plants. There were modelled, and laboratory tested two types of stems – sida hermaphrodita and miscanthus giganteus. Course of proceedings for obtaining natural cross-sectional dimensions with graphical data processing was described in detail. Basing on dozens of stems slices from random parts of plants, three different cross-section approximations were proposed and computationally implemented – a circular pipe, an elliptical pipe (symmetrical cross-section) and a sine-cosine series pipe (asymmetrical cross-section). Analytical formulas for calculating a cross-sectional area and moments of inertia for each approximation were given. Basic material parameters as an elastic modulus and yielding stress was obtained from simply supported beam theory and laboratory force – the deflexion relation. FEM models were created in Simulia Abaqus software using C3D20R elements. Preliminary approach to modelling damage with perfect plasticity was done basing on several samples bended to failure in laboratory tests. Conclusions for future work with numerical modelling natural plant stems were drawn.
Highlights
Sida hermaphrodita and miscanthus giganteus are perennial plants belonging to the group of non-food renewable energy sources [1, 2, 3]
Miscanthus giganteus is a sterile hybrid plant farmed in the 1980s in Denmark
Miscanthus Giganteus does not produce seeds and is propagated vegetatively, most often through rhizomes cuttings obtained from the division of root carps of mother plants [5]
Summary
Methods for harvesting energetic plants and especially influence of different kind of factors on cutting process are still under development. Because numerical modelling is a recent method for predicting wide range of processes, it was proposed to be used in modelling cutting of stems. To obtain suitable models corresponding to reality it was necessary to determine appropriate assumptions for computational modelling. In the paper there were presented methods for approximating cross-sectional parameters and a first attempt to damage modelling through perfect plastic behaviour of the material. Presented subject is a preliminary work and modelling is still under development
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