Contributions to the Biomechanics of Plants.; II. Stability Against Local Buckling in Hollow Plant Stems*

Hollow plant stems are, compared to solid ones, endangered by a particular kind of mechanical damage: local buckling. In upright stems centric forces due to the weight of the plant itself are not critical. Bending, however, as caused by wind forces causes transverse stresses that lead to local buckling, long before the critical tension or compression stresses are reached. A new numerical method is proposed to treat local buckling of hollow plant stems caused by bending forces. The results emphasize the importance of transverse reinforcements in the nodes and/or the nodal thickenings for the stability of hollow structures.