Twist-to-bend ratio: an important selective factor for many rod-shaped biological structures

Mechanical optimisation plays a key role in living beings either as an immediate response of individuals or as an evolutionary adaptation of populations to changing environmental conditions. Since biological structures are the result of multifunctional evolutionary constraints, the dimensionless twist-to-bend ratio is particularly meaningful because it provides information about the ratio of flexural rigidity to torsional rigidity determined by both material properties (bending and shear modulus) and morphometric parameters (axial and polar second moment of area). The determination of the mutual contributions of material properties and structural arrangements (geometry) or their ontogenetic alteration to the overall mechanical functionality of biological structures is difficult. Numerical methods in the form of gradient flows of phase field functionals offer a means of addressing this question and of analysing the influence of the cross-sectional shape of the main load-bearing structures on the mechanical functionality. Three phase field simulations were carried out showing good agreement with the cross-sections found in selected plants: (i) U-shaped cross-sections comparable with those of Musa sp. petioles, (ii) star-shaped cross-sections with deep grooves as can be found in the lianoid wood of Condylocarpon guianense stems, and (iii) flat elliptic cross-sections with one deep groove comparable with the cross-sections of the climbing ribbon-shaped stems of Bauhinia guianensis.