Posted online 05/16/2019 Mechanics of a Plant in Fluid Flow F.P. Gosselin Mechanics of a Plant in Fluid Flow Frédérick P. Gosselin Laboratory for Multiscale Mechanics, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Polytechnique Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
[email protected] Highlight Plants reduce their drag by deforming in the flow, sway with the waves and make use of flow-induced vibrations to increase their exchange with the fluid they live in. Keywords Aerodynamics; Current; Drag; Elasticity; Flow-Induced Vibrations; Fluid-Structure Interactions; Hydrodynamics; Loads; Pollen Release and Capture; Reconfiguration; Waves; Wind Abstract Plants live in constantly moving fluid, whether air or water. In response to the loads associated with fluid motion, plants bend and twist, often with great amplitude. These large deformations are not found in traditional engineering application and thus necessitate new specialised scientific developments. Studying Fluid-Structure Interactions (FSI) in botany, forestry and agricultural science is crucial to the optimisation of biomass production for food, energy, and construction materials. FSI are also central in the study of the ecological adaptation of plants to their environment. This review paper surveys the mechanics of FSI on individual plants. We present a short refresher on fluids mechanics then dive in the statics and dynamics of plant-fluid interactions. For every phenomenon considered, we present the appropriate dimensionless numbers to characterise the problem, discuss the implications of these phenomena on biological processes, and propose future research avenues. We cover the concept of reconfiguration while considering poroelasticity, torsion, chirality, buoyancy, and skin friction.