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Tension wood is widespread in the organs of woody plants. During its formation, it generates a large tensile mechanical stress called maturation stress. Maturation stress performs essential biomechanical functions such as optimizing the mechanical resistance of the stem, performing adaptive movements, and ensuring the long-term stability of growing plants. Although various hypotheses have recently been proposed, the mechanism generating maturation stress is not yet fully understood. In order to discriminate between these hypotheses, we investigated structural changes in cellulose microfibrils along sequences of xylem cell differentiation in tension and normal wood of poplar (Populus deltoides x Populus trichocarpa 'I45-51'). Synchrotron radiation microdiffraction was used to measure the evolution of the angle and lattice spacing of crystalline cellulose associated with the deposition of successive cell wall layers. Profiles of normal and tension wood were very similar in early development stages corresponding to the formation of the S1 layer and the outer part of the S2 layer. Subsequent layers were found with a lower microfibril angle (MFA), corresponding to the inner part of the S2 layer of normal wood (MFA approximately 10°) and the G layer of tension wood (MFA approximately 0°). In tension wood only, this steep decrease in MFA occurred together with an increase in cellulose lattice spacing. The relative increase in lattice spacing was found close to the usual value of maturation strains. Analysis showed that this increase in lattice spacing is at least partly due to mechanical stress induced in cellulose microfibrils soon after their deposition, suggesting that the G layer directly generates and supports the tensile maturation stress in poplar tension wood.

Tension wood of Laetia procera (Poepp.) Eichl. (Flacourtiaceae), a neo-tropical forest species, shows a peculiar secondary wall structure, with an alternance of thick and thin layers, while opposite wood of this species has a typical secondary wall structure (S1 + S2 + S3). Samples for the study of microstructural properties were collected upon the estimation of growth stresses in the living tree, in order to analyze the correlation of the former with the latter. Investigation using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and UV microspectrophotometry allowed the description of the anatomy, ultra-structure and chemistry of this peculiar polylaminate secondary wall. In the thick layers, cellulose microfibril angle is very low (i.e., microfibril orientation is close to fibre axis) and cellulose microfibrils are well organized and parallel to each other. In the thin layers, microfibrils (only observable in the inner layer) are less organized and are oriented with a large angle relative to the axis of the cell. Thick layers are lightly lignified although thin layers show a higher content of lignin, close to that of opposite wood secondary wall. The more the wood was under tensile stress, the less the secondary wall was lignified, and lower the syringyl on guaiacyl lignin units' ratio was. The innermost layer of the secondary wall looks like a typical S3 layer with large microfibril angle and lignin occurrence. The interest of this kind of structure for the understanding of stress generation is discussed.

Cemented granular aggregates include a broad class of geomaterials such as sedimentary rocks and some biomaterials such as the wheat endosperm. We present a 3D lattice element method for the simulation of such materials, modeled as a jammed assembly of particles bound together by a matrix partially filling the interstitial space. From extensive simulation data, we analyze the mechanical properties of aggregates subjected to tensile loading as a function of matrix volume fraction and particle-matrix adhesion. We observe a linear elastic behavior followed by a brutal failure along a fracture surface. The effective stiffness before failure increases almost linearly with the matrix volume fraction. We show that the tensile strength of the aggregates increases with both the increasing tensile strength at the particle-matrix interface and decreasing stress concentration as a function of matrix volume fraction. The proportion of broken bonds in the particle phase reveals a range of values of the particle-matrix adhesion and matrix volume fraction for which the cracks bypass the particles and hence no particle damage occurs. This limit is shown to depend on the relative toughness of the particle-matrix interface with respect to the particles.

Tension wood is widespread in the organs of woody plants. During its formation, it generates a large tensile mechanical stress, called maturation stress. Maturation stress performs essential biomechanical functions such as optimizing the mechanical resistance of the stem, performing adaptive movements, and ensuring long-term stability of growing plants. Although various hypotheses have recently been proposed, the mechanism generating maturation stress is not yet fully understood. In order to discriminate between these hypotheses, we investigated structural changes in cellulose microfibrils along sequences of xylem cell differentiation in tension and normal wood of poplar (Populus deltoides 3 Populus trichocarpa ‘I45-51’). Synchrotron radiation microdiffraction was used to measure the evolution of the angle and lattice spacing of crystalline cellulose associated with the deposition of successive cell wall layers. Profiles of normal and tension wood were very similar in early development stages corresponding to the formation of the S1 and the outer part of the S2 layer. The microfibril angle in the S2 layer was found to be lower in its inner part than in its outer part, especially in tension wood. In tension wood only, this decrease occurred together with an increase in cellulose lattice spacing, and this happened before the G-layer was visible. The relative increase in lattice spacing was found close to the usual value of maturation strains, strongly suggesting that microfibrils of this layer are put into tension and contribute to the generation of maturation stress.

Today, plant fibers are considered as an important new renewable resource that can compete with some synthetic fibers, such as glass, in fiber-reinforced composites. In previous works, it was noted that the pectin-enriched middle lamella (ML) is a weak point in the fiber bundles for plant fiber-reinforced composites. ML is strongly bonded to the primary walls of the cells to form a complex layer called the compound middle lamella (CML). In a composite, cracks preferentially propagate along and through this layer when a mechanical loading is applied. In this work, middle lamellae of several plant fibers of different origin (flax, hemp, jute, kenaf, nettle, and date palm leaf sheath), among the most used for composite reinforcement, are investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The peak-force quantitative nanomechanical property mapping (PF-QNM) mode is used in order to estimate the indentation modulus of this layer. AFM PF-QNM confirmed its potential and suitability to mechanically characterize and compare the stiffness of small areas at the micro and nanoscale level, such as plant cell walls and middle lamellae. Our results suggest that the mean indentation modulus of ML is in the range from 6 GPa (date palm leaf sheath) to 16 GPa (hemp), depending on the plant considered. Moreover, local cell-wall layer architectures were finely evidenced and described.

Key messageInterlocked grain and basic density increase from pith to bark in Bagassa guianensis and greatly improve trunk torsional stiffness and wood tenacity in the radial plane.AbstractTrees modulate their building material, wood, throughout their lifetime to meet changing mechanical needs. Basic density, a widely studied wood property, has been proved to be negatively correlated to growth rate and is then considered to reflect the diversity of species growth strategies. An alternative way for trees to modulate growth strategy at constant construction cost is changing the organisation of their fibre network. Interlocked grain, the result of a periodic change in the orientation of the fibres in the tangential plane, is found in numerous tropical tree species. In this study, we first describe the variations in basic density and interlocked grain occurring during ontogeny of Bagassa guianensis, a fast-growing Amazonian species, and analyse their influence on the local mechanical properties of wood at the tissue level. The observed radial patterns and properties are then incorporated in a finite element model to investigate their effect on mechanical properties of the trunk. We report extreme and highly reproducible concomitant radial variations in basic density and interlocked grain in all the sampled trees, with grain angle variations ranging from -31 degrees to 23 degrees. Such changes in wood during ontogeny allows trees to tailor their growth rate while greatly improving resistance to torsion and reducing the risk of splitting.

We present a study of a sensor probe based on tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy, using antimonide-based diode lasers emitting at 2.3 and 2.6 μm. The lasers were fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy in the IES laboratory. The active regions are based on InGaAsSb/AlGaAsSb quantum wells grown on a GaSb(N) substrate. The diode lasers operate at room temperature in a continuous wave (CW) regime and exhibit 5 mW of emitted power. A linear optical setup using the two emitting facets of the diode lasers was developed. By using a second derivative detection by wavelength modulation spectroscopy, we obtained a CH4 detection limit of 9 ppm m. The sensor is designed to be used in soil and to measure CH4, CO2 and H2O, which are important constituents of the soil atmosphere generated by anaerobic digestion, microbial respiration or water transfer.

The mechanism for tree orientation in angiosperms is based on the production of high tensile stress on the upper side of the inclined axis. In many species, the stress level is strongly related to the presence of a peculiar layer, called G-layer, in the fibre wall. The structure of G-layer has been recently described as a hydrogel thanks to N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms of supercritically dried samples showing a high mesoporosity (pores size from 2 to 50 nm). This led us to revisit the concept of G-layer that was until now only described from anatomical observation. Adsorption isotherms of both normal wood and tension wood have been measured on six tropical species. Measurements show that mesoporosity is high in tension wood with typical thick G-layer while it is much less with thinner G-layer, sometimes no more than normal wood. The mesoporosity of tension wood species without G-layer is as low as in normal wood. Not depending on the amount of pores, the pore sizes distribution are always centred around 6-12 nm. These results suggest that, among species producing fibres with G-layer, large structural differences of G-layer exist between species

Recent works revealed that bark is able to produce mechanical stress to control the orientation of young tilted stems. Here we report how the potential performance of this function changes with stem size in six Amazonian species with contrasted bark anatomy. The potential performance of the mechanism depends both on the magnitude of bark stress and the relative thickness of the bark. We measured bark longitudinal residual strain and density, and the allometric relationship between bark thickness and stem radius over a gradient of tree sizes. Constant tensile stress was found in species that rely on bark for the control of stem orientation in young stages. Other species had increasing compres-sive stress, associated with increasing density attributed to the development of sclereids. Compressive stress was also associated with low relative bark thickness. The relative thickness of bark decreased with size in all species, suggesting that a reorientation mechanism based on bark progressively performs less well as the tree grows. However, greater relative thickness was observed in species with more tensile stress, thereby evidencing that this reduction in performance is mitigated in species that rely on bark for reorientation.