Ultrasound-assisted Germination of Lens culinaris: Thermoacoustic simulation and resource-efficient enhancement of seedling development

Ultrasound-assisted Germination of Lens culinaris: Thermoacoustic simulation and resource-efficient enhancement of seedling development | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Ultrasound-assisted Germination of Lens culinaris: Thermoacoustic simulation and resource-efficient enhancement of seedling development DANIEL AGUILAR-TORRES, OMAR JIMÉNEZ-RAMÍREZ, FELIPE A. PERDOMO, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9187298/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Ultrasound-assisted seed priming has gained increasing attention as a sustainable strategy to enhance germination performance and early plant development. A combined multiphysics modeling and experimental framework is presented to evaluate the effects of ultrasonic treatment on the germination dynamics and early growth of Lens culinaris seeds. A thermo--acoustic numerical model was developed to estimate the spatial and temporal dynamics of acoustic pressure and temperature fields within the ultrasonic bath, enabling the identification of regions with enhanced cavitation potential and energy transfer. This modeling approach provides insight into the physical mechanisms governing ultrasound–seed interactions during the priming process. Experimental germination assays were performed using ultrasound exposure times ranging from 5 to 30 minutes. Germination performance was evaluated through germination percentage, germination rate, seedling length, and vigor index. Ultrasound treatments maintained consistently high germination levels (96–99%) while significantly enhancing early seedling development compared with untreated seeds. Average seedling length increased from 16 mm in the control to 34–46 mm in treated samples, while the vigor index increased from 1568 to values between 2254 and 4416, indicating substantial improvement in seed physiological performance. Longer sonication times (20–30 min) promoted greater seedling elongation and higher vigor indices, whereas shorter treatments (5–15 min) maintained optimal germination efficiency. Importantly, these biological improvements were achieved without increasing water or energy consumption, as all treatments operated under identical resource inputs. The results demonstrate that ultrasound-assisted priming improves the biological efficiency of the germination process by producing more vigorous seedlings per unit of resource input. This integrated modeling–experimental framework highlights the potential of ultrasound technology as a resource-efficient method to enhance lentil germination and support sustainable functional food production systems. Acoustic cavitation Seed vigor Sustainable agriculture Energy efficiency Water-use optimization Heat transfer Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9187298","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":628973596,"identity":"df84df4a-9664-49b1-a638-9fcdf0ba54eb","order_by":0,"name":"DANIEL AGUILAR-TORRES","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA90lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDCCA8icjw0gkrHxABaF6FoMwCTjzAYGCSDVQLwWZl6wFjSr0QHf8bMHGH4w/JEzn3348GfbHTZ1uu2HgbbU2ETj0iJ5Ji+BsYfBwFjmXFqadO6ZNAmzM4lALcfSchtwaDE4kGPAwMNgkDiDh8eMObftsITZAaAWxobDuLWcf2PA+Aeshf/zZ0uQlvMPCWi5kWPADLWFQZoRpOUGAVskb7wxYJZhMDaW4GEzk+xtS5PcdgNoSwIev/CdzzFgfMMgJyfBw/z4w882G36z8+kPH3yoscGpBQjYfzD+QxdLwK18FIyCUTAKRgERAAAf0FrFGfeFIQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Instituto Politécnico Nacional","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"DANIEL","middleName":"","lastName":"AGUILAR-TORRES","suffix":""},{"id":628973597,"identity":"c1883634-602b-4dbc-9b6e-cfa8239ba66b","order_by":1,"name":"OMAR JIMÉNEZ-RAMÍREZ","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Instituto Politécnico Nacional","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"OMAR","middleName":"","lastName":"JIMÉNEZ-RAMÍREZ","suffix":""},{"id":628973599,"identity":"a9ba91f9-a693-41ba-b6ad-e432b4563782","order_by":2,"name":"FELIPE A. 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A combined multiphysics modeling and experimental framework is presented to evaluate the effects of ultrasonic treatment on the germination dynamics and early growth of \u003cem\u003eLens culinaris\u003c/em\u003e seeds. A thermo--acoustic numerical model was developed to estimate the spatial and temporal dynamics of acoustic pressure and temperature fields within the ultrasonic bath, enabling the identification of regions with enhanced cavitation potential and energy transfer. This modeling approach provides insight into the physical mechanisms governing ultrasound\u0026ndash;seed interactions during the priming process. Experimental germination assays were performed using ultrasound exposure times ranging from 5 to 30 minutes. Germination performance was evaluated through germination percentage, germination rate, seedling length, and vigor index. Ultrasound treatments maintained consistently high germination levels (96\u0026ndash;99%) while significantly enhancing early seedling development compared with untreated seeds. Average seedling length increased from 16 mm in the control to 34\u0026ndash;46 mm in treated samples, while the vigor index increased from 1568 to values between 2254 and 4416, indicating substantial improvement in seed physiological performance. Longer sonication times (20\u0026ndash;30 min) promoted greater seedling elongation and higher vigor indices, whereas shorter treatments (5\u0026ndash;15 min) maintained optimal germination efficiency. Importantly, these biological improvements were achieved without increasing water or energy consumption, as all treatments operated under identical resource inputs. The results demonstrate that ultrasound-assisted priming improves the biological efficiency of the germination process by producing more vigorous seedlings per unit of resource input. This integrated modeling\u0026ndash;experimental framework highlights the potential of ultrasound technology as a resource-efficient method to enhance lentil germination and support sustainable functional food production systems.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Ultrasound-assisted Germination of Lens culinaris: Thermoacoustic simulation and resource-efficient enhancement of seedling development","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-04-27 09:27:34","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9187298/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"ede2881f-5141-4d92-9ccc-0da56a67fb3d","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 27th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[{"type":"decision","content":"Rejected","date":"2026-05-12T05:23:00+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2026-05-09T01:46:26+00:00","index":26,"fulltext":""}],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-12T05:41:11+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-04-27 09:27:34","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9187298","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9187298","identity":"rs-9187298","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}