Experimental and computational comparison of freeze-thaw induced pressure generation in red and sugar maple

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Main Authors: Zarrinderakht, Maryam, Konrad, Isabell, Wilmot, Timothy R., Perkins, Timothy D., Berg, Abby K. van den, Stockie, John M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2021
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author Zarrinderakht, Maryam
Konrad, Isabell
Wilmot, Timothy R.
Perkins, Timothy D.
Berg, Abby K. van den
Stockie, John M.
author_facet Zarrinderakht, Maryam
Konrad, Isabell
Wilmot, Timothy R.
Perkins, Timothy D.
Berg, Abby K. van den
Stockie, John M.
contents Sap exudation is the process whereby trees such as sugar (Acer saccharum) and red maple (Acer rubrum) generate unusually high positive stem pressure in response to repeated cycles of freeze and thaw. This elevated xylem pressure permits the sap to be harvested over a period of several weeks and hence is a major factor in the viability of the maple syrup industry. The extensive literature on sap exudation documents competing hypotheses regarding the physical and biological mechanisms that drive positive pressure generation in maple, but to date relatively little effort has been expended on devising mathematical models for the exudation process. In this paper, we utilize an existing model of Graf et al. [J. Roy. Soc. Interface 12:20150665, 2015] that describes heat and mass transport within the multiphase gas-liquid-ice mixture in the porous xylem tissue. The model captures the inherent multiscale nature of xylem transport by including phase change and osmotic transport in wood cells on the microscale, which is coupled to heat transport through the tree stem on the macroscale. A parametric study based on simulations with synthetic temperature data identifies the model parameters that have greatest impact on stem pressure build-up. Measured daily temperature fluctuations are then used as model inputs and the resulting simulated pressures are compared directly with experimental measurements taken from mature red and sugar maple stems during the sap harvest season. The results demonstrate that our multiscale freeze-thaw model reproduces realistic exudation behavior, thereby providing novel insights into the specific physical mechanisms that dominate positive pressure generation in maple trees.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2106_02802
institution arXiv
publishDate 2021
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Experimental and computational comparison of freeze-thaw induced pressure generation in red and sugar maple
Zarrinderakht, Maryam
Konrad, Isabell
Wilmot, Timothy R.
Perkins, Timothy D.
Berg, Abby K. van den
Stockie, John M.
Numerical Analysis
Fluid Dynamics
35B27, 76M12, 76M50, 80A22, 92-05, 92C80
Sap exudation is the process whereby trees such as sugar (Acer saccharum) and red maple (Acer rubrum) generate unusually high positive stem pressure in response to repeated cycles of freeze and thaw. This elevated xylem pressure permits the sap to be harvested over a period of several weeks and hence is a major factor in the viability of the maple syrup industry. The extensive literature on sap exudation documents competing hypotheses regarding the physical and biological mechanisms that drive positive pressure generation in maple, but to date relatively little effort has been expended on devising mathematical models for the exudation process. In this paper, we utilize an existing model of Graf et al. [J. Roy. Soc. Interface 12:20150665, 2015] that describes heat and mass transport within the multiphase gas-liquid-ice mixture in the porous xylem tissue. The model captures the inherent multiscale nature of xylem transport by including phase change and osmotic transport in wood cells on the microscale, which is coupled to heat transport through the tree stem on the macroscale. A parametric study based on simulations with synthetic temperature data identifies the model parameters that have greatest impact on stem pressure build-up. Measured daily temperature fluctuations are then used as model inputs and the resulting simulated pressures are compared directly with experimental measurements taken from mature red and sugar maple stems during the sap harvest season. The results demonstrate that our multiscale freeze-thaw model reproduces realistic exudation behavior, thereby providing novel insights into the specific physical mechanisms that dominate positive pressure generation in maple trees.
title Experimental and computational comparison of freeze-thaw induced pressure generation in red and sugar maple
topic Numerical Analysis
Fluid Dynamics
35B27, 76M12, 76M50, 80A22, 92-05, 92C80
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.02802