Biomechanical modeling of rice seedling stalk based on multi-scale structure and heterogeneous materials

•A multi-scale biomechanical model of rice seedling stalk was constructed.•Mapping relations between gray value, density, and elastic modulus was established.•Damage mechanism of rice seedling stalks under mechanical loading was revealed.•Turgor pressure has significant effects on the stalks' biomechanical properties. Rice seedling stalks are biologically characterized by multilayer porous structure and multiphase inhomogeneous material properties. This biological properties make it challenging to reveal the biomechanical behavior and damage mechanism of rice seedling stalks under mechanical load. In this research, the mechanical properties of the cell wall in each leaf sheath of rice seedling stalk were measured by nanoindentation, and a three-dimensional (3D) structure model of rice seedling stalk was established using micro-computed tomography (Micro-CT). According to the gray value difference in the CT images, rice seedling stalk was defined as three types of materials: protoplasts, parenchyma cell wall and collenchyma cell wall. A 3D finite element model of rice seedling stalk with heterogeneous material distribution was established based on the mapping relationship of gray value-density-elastic modulus. The accuracy of the model was verified by radial compression and axial tensile tests from three aspects: macroscopic mechanical response, microscopic mechanical behavior, and actual load effect. The results show that the modeling method is fast and reliable, and effectively improves the analytical accuracy of biomechanical properties for living plant materials with multi-layer porous structure characteristics, heterogeneous anisotropic material properties, and high moisture content. It also provides a useful tool for revealing the damage mechanism and quantitative damage evaluation of living plants under mechanical loading. This will be of great help to the optimization of the structure and working parameters of transplanting mechanism.