Journal of Stress Physiology & Biochemistry (Dec 2011)
Mathematical modeling of heat transfer in plant community
Abstract
The conductive, convective and radiation heat exchange process in a natural system including plants aggregation, air lower layer and ground upper layer, is examined. The mathematical model of process is formulated in 1d unsteady approach. The numerical simulation of plants aggregation cooling is performed for the case of a radiation frost. It is found up that mutual influence of plants in an aggregation on the heat exchange with environment grows with the increase of plants size and plants number per ground area. The influence leads to that lower parts of plants are cooled slower, while upper parts are cooled faster. The estimations are made for the quantity of heat emitted in a thermogenic plant that is enough to prevent the plant cold stress. It is shown that in presence of enforced air flow the rate of plants cooling is noticeably lower, as well as the quantity of heat enough to prevent the plant cold stress.