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Mechanical properties of a novel, lightweight structure inspired by beetle’s elytra

  • Article
  • Bionic Engineering
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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

A new kind of bio-inspired, lightweight structure was designed and built from carbon fibre prepreg based on the cross-sectional microstructure of a beetle’s elytra. The compression strength and failure process of the resulting structure was analysed using the finite element method; while at the same time, a quasi-static compression experiment was performed using an electronic universal testing machine to verify the effectiveness and accuracy of this finite element method. This bio-inspired structure was compared against a conventional honeycomb structure using FEM, revealing that for a given porosity and load parallel to the axis of the core tubes the respective compressive and specific compressive strengths of the bio-inspired structure are much higher at 84.3 MPa and 194.7 MPa/(g cm−3); thus demonstrating that this bio-inspired structure has superior compressive capability.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB302106), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51175249, 51105201), the Aero-Science Foundation of China (2013ZF52072), and the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (20123218110010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Bio-inspired Structure and Surface Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Ce Guo, Dong Li, Zhenyu Lu, Chunsheng Zhu & Zhendong Dai

Authors
  1. Ce Guo
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  2. Dong Li
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  3. Zhenyu Lu
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  4. Chunsheng Zhu
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  5. Zhendong Dai
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Correspondence to Ce Guo.

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Guo, C., Li, D., Lu, Z. et al. Mechanical properties of a novel, lightweight structure inspired by beetle’s elytra. Chin. Sci. Bull. 59, 3341–3347 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0384-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0384-5

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