Abstract

To investigate the synergistic regulatory mechanism of vein structure and temperature on crack propagation behavior in plant leaves, this study conducted systematic tensile tests to determine the fracture behavior of leaves with different numbers of veins (0, 1, and 2) at various pretreatment temperatures (35–55 °C). A fractal-corrected fracture energy model was subsequently developed. The results show that both the crack fractal dimension and fracture energy first increase and then decrease with rising temperature, peaking at 45 °C. Fracture energy decreases as the number of veins increases: by approximately 60% for a single vein, and nonlinearly for two veins (synergy factor ranging from 0.59 to 0.71), indicating diminishing toughening returns. When the angle between the crack propagation direction and the vein is less than 90°, veins do not provide a toughening effect but instead act as preferential failure pathways, although they prolong the overall crack propagation duration. Crack propagation velocity exhibits intermittent fluctuations. In the temperature range of 50–55 °C, toughness increases and velocity fluctuations diminish. For double-vein leaves, velocity fluctuations are mild in the early stage, but a pronounced peak occurs later upon interface breakthrough. This model provides a reference for the quantitative analysis of fracture behavior in plant leaves.

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