Fig. 3

A typical specimen output, showing the stress state resulting from the fmincon optimization procedure, which attempts to create the most uniform possible stress state along the length of the specimen by altering values for F₀ and f(x) (top); the analytical maize stalk model partitioned into 100 cross-sections along its length (bottom). Plant height (x-axis) is normalized to the height of the plant specimen. Maximum stress of each cross-section (y-axis) normalized to a target stress of 1.00