Effects of sandwich microstructures on mechanical behaviors of dragonfly wing vein

Abstract

Dragonfly wings, which consist mainly of the veins and membranes, are highly specialized flight organs adapted to cope with the individual flight behavior of each dragonfly. Therefore, it is important and necessary from a bionic view to investigate how the microstructures affect their mechanical behaviors of elements. In this study, it is focused on effects of microstructure on mechanical characteristics of dragonfly wing vein. These results indicate that the microstructure of vein is a complex sandwich structure, which consists of chitin shell and protein/muscle with some fibrils. This sandwich structure can be subjected to the rather greater bending loading and torsional deformation based on the von Mises stress and flexural deformation analysis of finite element analysis (FEA). It assists us to understand and design the new high strength-to-weight ratio of composite materials or structure.