Structural design inspired by beetle elytra and its mechanical properties

Abstract

On the basis of the microstructure of the cross-section of a beetle's elytra, three bio-inspired lightweight structures were designed and built from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic with a three-dimensional printer. The mechanical properties of three lightweight structures were analyzed and compared employing the finite element method, and quasi-static compression experiments and a three-point bending test on the structure samples were carried out using an electronic universal testing machine to verify the effectiveness of the finite element method. The results show that all three bio-structures were lightweight and had excellent mechanical properties. In particular, the bio-structure with spherical holes and hollow columns perpendicular to the top and bottom surfaces best imitated the microstructure of the cross-section of the Cybister elytra and had the greatest specific strength/stiffness in compression and bending. Finally, a preliminary optimization design was obtained for this bio-structure to further improve its specific strength and specific stiffness to 31.82 kN m/kg and 108.73 kN m 2 /kg respectively. elytra, microstructure, bio-inspired lightweight structure, finite element analysis Citation: Guo C, Song W W, Dai Z D . Structural design inspired by beetle elytra and its mechanical properties. Chin Sci Bull, 2012, 57: 941947,

Compressive failure modes and parameter optimization of the trabecular structure of biomimetic fully integrated honeycomb plates

“…The mass-specific strength is commonly used to assess the performance of lightweight materials [36][37][38] and was therefore calculated for the FIHPs, as described in this section.…”

Review of beetle forewing structures and their biomimetic applications in China: (II) On the three-dimensional structure, modeling and imitation

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“…11(b) (data are shown in red). After optimization, the specific strength and specific stiffness increased by more than 20% [83].…”

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