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

Abstract

AbstractTo develop composite material beetle elytron plates (BEPs), short basalt fiber‐reinforced 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.