THE TRANSLATION OF TURBULENT WIND ENERGY TO INDIVIDUAL CORN PLANT MOTION DURING SENESCENSE

Wind flow within inflexible plant canopies is turbulent and leads to an oscillatory motion of individual plants. A study was conducted to describe the motion of corn (Zea mays L.) stalks in the wind using a transfer function in the frequency domain to gain insight into the transfer of energy between the turbulent wind and the corn plant. Plant motion was measured and the wind moment was estimated on 23 plants during six windy days in October 1988, at West Lafayette, IN. Plant motion was theoretically described by a rigid rod. The results showed that lower stalk motion was generally well described by a second-order response model defined by a damping coefficient, natural frequency, and rotary stiffness.