Stiffness Gradients In Vascular Bundles Of Palm Trees
July 3rd, 2008 | by admin |In palm trees, stiff fibres are embedded in soft surrounding tissue. The design of the interface of these tissues is crucial for the functioning of the stem.
Mechanical, structural and biochemical investigations with high spatial resolution showed that independent sources acting together at different levels of hierarchy create a stiffness gradient. Hereby, we found an additional mechanism of how plants can control axial stiffness.
The gradient is believed to be the key for the mechanical optimisation of palms under the given biological constraints.
These insights may inspire a biomimetic transfer of the underlying principles to technical fibre reinforced composites.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Proceedings B is the Royal Society’s flagship biological research journal, dedicated to the rapid publication and broad dissemination of high-quality research papers, reviews and comment and reply papers. The scope of journal is diverse and is especially strong in organismal biology.
www.publishing.royalsociety.org/proceedingsb
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