果樹枝の形成形態を考慮した有限要素解析に基づく最適支持位置の推定

抄録

In fruit cultivation, hanging branch is effective to prevent branch breakages. The hanging position is usually determined based on the farmer's experiences in the viewpoints of fruit growing and harvesting. It is important to identify the optimal hanging position considering with the mechanical stress distribution to effectively prevent the breakage. In this study, the optimal hanging position of tree branches was estimated by using finite element analysis. A branch model with the taper shape as the same of actual branch shape was loaded to an equally distributed load considering the fruit loads, and the maximum principal stress generated in the model with bending deformation was used to evaluate the hanging effect. The analyses were performed under various conditions by changing the inclination angle of branch and the taper ratio of the branch. The results showed that the optimal hanging positions were slightly shifted from the center to the apical sides of branch in the cases of the branch extended transversely with a certain degree of inclined angle. And it was found that the incorrect hanging positions led to decrease the stress reduction effects.