GOALI: Addressing Corn Stalk Breakage: An Engineering Approach to an Important Agronomical Problem

玉米是世界上最主要的粮食作物。仅在美国，每年就收获超过2500亿吨，产生的收入是其他作物的两倍。玉米在我们的经济中根深蒂固，被用于42000多种不同的用途，包括生产消费品、食品、药品、牲畜饲料和燃料。对玉米的需求每年都在增加，这推动了增加产量的努力。不幸的是，每年10- 20%的玉米作物因收割前秸秆断裂而损失，通常是由于风引起的秸秆断裂。这些损失大大降低了农场的生产力，对个别农民产生负面影响，并减少了国家生产，从而影响了消费品、商品贸易、燃料、粮食和更广泛的经济成本。由于每年种植如此多的玉米，即使玉米秸秆强度的相对较小的改善也可能对总产量和农业生产力产生显著的积极影响。虽然生物学家已经为解决这一问题工作了多年，但这项“与行业学术联络资助机会”（GOALI）奖支持了一种新的方法：让结构工程师与行业生物学家密切合作。工程与生物学的结合将支持开发更强的玉米品种，并为作物提供更多的见解，包括开发类似强化其他作物的策略和方法。该项目还将使本科生获得有意义的跨学科研究经验。本项目将使用工程失效分析技术解决玉米秸秆失效问题。首先，将进行自然失效的现场观察，以定性（物理描述和外观）和定量（位置和方向）描述茎秆失效的性质。正确地描述和量化失效模式的类型和分布，将使后续的研究集中在假设存在于茎节点附近的弱点区域。然后将进行实验室测试，以便在受控环境中使用几种类型的玉米秸秆收集更多的几何和强度数据。在这些测试之后，将对玉米秸秆组织进行测量，以评估其刚度、强度和化学成分。最后，这些不同的方面将结合起来进行统计分析，并创建玉米秸秆行为的工程模型。该项目的总体目标是确定玉米秸秆与失败相关的方面，寻找可以修改的候选特征，以产生更强的秸秆。这项研究构成了第一个玉米秸秆的工程失效分析，并将提供有关这种重要作物结构特征的丰富有价值的信息，从而支持和促进开发更强的玉米品种。

Corn is the world's leading grain crop. In the U.S. alone, more than 250 billion tons are harvested annually, generating twice as much revenue as any other crop. Corn is deeply rooted in our economy, being used in over 42,000 different applications, including the production of consumer goods, foods, pharmaceuticals, livestock feed, and fuel. The demand for corn continues to rise each year, fueling efforts to increase production. Unfortunately, 10-20 percent of the corn crop is lost every year due to breakage of the stalk before harvest, typically due to wind-induced stalk failure. These losses significantly reduce productivity of farms, negatively impact individual farmers, and decrease national production, thus affecting the cost of consumer goods, commodities trading, fuel, food, and the broader economy. Because so much corn is grown annually, even a relative small improvement in corn stalk strength could have a dramatically positive affect on total production and farm productivity. While biologists have worked for many years to address this problem, this Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) award supports a new approach: involving structural engineers working closely with industrial biologists. The combination of engineering with biology will support the development of stronger varieties of corn, and provide additional insights into crops, including the development of strategies and approaches for similarly strengthening other crops. The project will also expose undergraduate students to a meaningful and interdisciplinary research experience.This project will address corn stalk failure using engineering failure analysis techniques. First, in-field observations of natural failures will be performed to describe the nature of stalk failure, both qualitatively (physical description and appearance), and quantitatively (location and orientation). Properly describing and quantifying the types and distributions of failure patterns will allow subsequent research to focus on regions of weakness hypothesized to reside near stalk nodes. Laboratory tests will then be performed in order to collect additional geometric and strength data in a controlled environment using several types of corn stalks. Following these test, measurement of corn stalk tissues will be performed to assess stiffness, strength, and chemical composition. Finally, these various aspects will be combined to perform statistical analyses, and to create engineering models of corn stalk behavior. The overarching goal of this project is to identify aspects of the corn stalk which are associated with failure, seeking candidate features which could be modified to produce stronger stalks. This study constitutes the first engineering failure analysis of corn stalks, and will provide a wealth of valuable information regarding the structural characteristics of this important crop, thus supporting and contributing to efforts to develop stronger varieties of corn.