Retrieval of Aerodynamic Parameters in Rubber Tree Forests Based on the Computer Simulation Technique and Terrestrial Laser Scanning Data

Rubber trees along the southeast coast of China always suffer severe damage from hurricanes. Quantitative assessments of the capacity for wind resistance of various rubber tree clones are currently lacking. We focus on a vulnerability assessment of rubber trees of different clones under wind disturbance impacts by employing multidisciplinary approaches incorporating scanned points, aerodynamics, machine learning and computer graphics. Point cloud data from two typical rubber trees belonging to different clones (PR107 and CATAS 7-20-59) were collected using terrestrial laser scanning, and a connection chain of tree skeletons was constructed using a clustering algorithm of machine learning. The concept of foliage clumps based on the trunk and first-order branches was first proposed to optimize rubber tree plot 3D modelling for simulating the wind field and assessing the wind-related parameters. The results from the obtained phenotypic traits show that the variable leaf area index and included angle between the branches and trunk result in variations in the topological structure and gap fraction of tree crowns, respectively, which are the major influencing factors relevant to the rubber tree’s capacity to resist hurricane strikes. The aerodynamics analysis showed that the maximum dynamic pressure, wind velocity and turbulent intensity of the wind-related parameters in rubber tree plots of clone PR107 (300 Pa, 30 m/s and 15%) are larger than that in rubber tree plots of clone CATAS-7-20-59 (120 Pa, 18 m/s and 5%), which results in a higher probability of local strong cyclone occurrence and a higher vulnerability to hurricane damage.

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