The compressive property of a fiber‐reinforced resin beetle elytron plate and its influence mechanism

Abstract

To develop composite material beetle elytron plates (BEPs), short basalt fiberreinforced epoxy resin BEPs with hollow trabeculae and honeycomb walls were fabricated exploratively. Through comparison with honeycomb plates (HPs) with the same wall thickness, the basic mechanical performance, failure mode and influence mechanism were studied via out-of-plane compression tests. The results show that compared with HPs, the specific strength and energy consumption per volume of BEPs can be at least 18% and 112% higher, respectively; however, the increase is less than half that of BEPs made of ductile materials. The former is due to the synergistic mechanism of the trabecular-honeycomb structure in the BEP core layer, which endows the composite BEPs with better ductility than HPs, while the latter is caused by the prominent brittleness of the composite material used in this study. Additionally, the height-to-thickness ratio of the plate honeycomb wall in this article is not large enough. Thus, the core has great rigidity and fails to buckle in experiments; instead, shear failure of the core material occurs. This study reveals for the first time the mechanical compression properties and failure mechanism of brittle material BEPs and shows a direction for developing BEPs in similar material types.

The compressive mechanical properties of honeycomb plates and beetle elytron plates with different foam densities and height-to-thickness ratios

“…Figure 9(a) shows that the peak load and energy absorption of model 1 EBEP fc are considerably higher than those of HP fc . This is consistent with the conclusion that the compressive properties of EBEP are much better than those of HP, 14,35 and the strengthening mechanism is the same as that discussed before. The following discussion focuses on the mechanical properties of EBEP fc and HP fc with different height-to-thickness ratios and foam densities.…”

“…The basalt fiber, resin, diluent and curing agent selected in this experiment were exactly the same as those used in a previous experiment. 35 The mass ratio of the glue resin:curing agent:diluent = 10:3:1, and the volume ratio of glue:basalt fiber was 3:1. The release agent was an Easylease-200 chemical demolding agent (Beijing Fucai Tesco Technology Co., Ltd.).…”

“…The failure mode of honeycomb walls and trabeculae in EBEP and GBEP fc made of short basalt fiber-reinforced epoxy resin composite is mainly 45°s hear failure. 35 Nevertheless, based on finite element analysis of the deformation and failure modes of GP fc and GBEP fc filled with foam, it is known that even for EBEP fc , the above four deformation modes tend to occur before failure. 14 When these structures are filled with foam, the deformation of the trabeculae increases by one order (from Φ-type to B-type), and the deformation mode of the honeycomb walls varies according to their position in the plate: that of those located in the outer ring increases by two orders of magnitude, while that of those located in the inner ring increases by one order of magnitude.…”

Flexural Properties of Aluminum Middle-Trabecular Beetle Elytron Plates with a Large Height-to-Thickness Ratio Core

“…However, it should be noted that the aforementioned achievements are mostly based on end-trabecular beetle elytron plates (EBEP) fabricated by engineering resins (ABS resin) [ 10 ] , metal materials using 3D printing techniques [ 11 ] , or manually prepared resin composites reinforced basalt fibers [ 12 ] . Moreover, the core wall thickness in these studies was 1 mm or greater, and the core height-to-thickness ratio, denoted as β, ranged from 11 to 26.…”