Effects of chirality and inhomogeneous growth on the morphology of plant tendril

¹ Department of Mechanics, Tianjin University - Tianjin 300072, PRC
² Tianjin Key Laboratory of Modern Engineering Mechanics, Tianjin University - Tianjin 300072, PRC
³ Key Laboratory of Mechanical Reliability for Heavy Equipments and Large Structures of Hebei Province, Yanshan University - Qinhuangdao 066004, PRC
⁴ School of Civil Architecture, Zhengzhou University of Aeronautics - Zhengzhou 450000, PRC

^(a) huichuanzhao@tju.edu.cn (corresponding author)

Received: 11 March 2021
Accepted: 7 June 2021

Abstract

By controlling the growth rate, biomaterials with chiral microstructure can produce nonuniform prestress and then form chiral morphologies, such as twisted biological filaments, while it is not clear how the chiral microstructure of biomaterials affects the formation and movement of its macro chiral morphologies under the action of uneven prestresses. In this work, a double-layered composite beam model considering the chiral microstructure of biological materials based on experimental observations is established. The influences of inhomogeneous growth and chiral microstructure on the formation of the chiral morphologies of tendrils are considered as a typical example and discussed in detail. The results show that the macro chiral phases of plant tendrils provide a remarkable dependence on their chiral microstructures.