Finite Element Analysis of Plant Cell Wall Materials |
| Journal |
Advanced Materials Research (Volume 32) |
| Volume |
Frontiers in Materials Science and Technology |
| Edited by |
John Bell, Cheng Yan, Lin Ye and Liangchi Zhang |
| Pages |
197-202 |
| DOI |
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.32.197 |
| Online since |
February, 2008 |
| Authors |
Hung Kha, Sigrid Tuble, Shankar Kalyanasundaram, Richard E. Williamson |
| Keywords |
Cellulose Microfibril, Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Plant Cell Wall, Xyloglucan |
| Abstract |
Illuminating fundamental aspects of plant cell wall mechanics will lead to novel
biological and engineering inspired strategies for application in the cotton and wood fiber industries
and in developing novel plant-derived materials that are increasingly seen as environmentally
friendly alternatives. The stiffness properties of cell wall polymers such as cellulose microfibrils
and xyloglucans are known but the relationship between the composite structure of the wall and its
effective stiffness remains poorly understood. Understanding this relationship is important to
engineers using and designing plant-derived materials and to biologists studying plant growth. We
have developed a software system to generate microfibril-xyloglucan networks resembling those
found in cell walls. Finite element analysis was implemented to predict the effective Young’s
modulus of varying sizes of the microfibril-xyloglucan network. Results from the finite element
models show that the network’s effective moduli of the cell walls having microfibrils parallel to
applied loadings are relatively high (~90-215MPa) compared with those of the walls having
randomly oriented microfibrils (~20-47MPa). The walls having microfibrils parallel to each other
but perpendicular to applied loadings have lowest stiffness (~17-118kPa). The Young’s moduli are
significantly lower than those of its constituent polymers and generally in agreement with
experimentally measured values. |
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