Perforated Plate and its porosity

What is the ‘Free area ratio’ in Perforated Plate? Is this the Optical or the Aerodynamic Porosity number?

See for the difference (Figure 8): Gonzales, Howell B. et al.: Porosity and drag determination of a single-row vegetative barrier (Maclura pomifera). In: Transactions of the ASABE 61 (2018), issue 2, pp. 641-652.

I would have thought that in CFD one uses the Aerodynamic Porosity, but if I look at the info around Perforated Plate’s Porosity I see that it is the ‘Free area ratio’ (which sounds very optical;-).

<I ask it because my simulates come closer to measurements in the field when using Aerodynamic Porosity (derived from the Optical Porosity>

Thanks for your help.