The flexural property and its synergistic mechanism of multibody molded beetle elytron plates

Abstract

To improve the applications of beetle elytron plates (BEPs, which are biomimetic sandwich plates inspired by beetle elytra), the flexural performance and its synergistic mechanism of multibody molded BEPs were investigated via cantilever testing and finite element method (FEM). The results are summarized as follows. (1) Although debonding damage causes failure of the multibody molded BEPs and honeycomb plate and the reasonable range of trabecular size for BEPs is narrow, both the optimal loading capacity per mass and failure deformation of the BEPs are over two times those of the honeycomb plate. (2) A flexural synergistic mechanism is revealed in the trabecular-honeycomb core structure of BEPs; this mechanism causes the maximum deformation of core structure to gradually transfer from the honeycomb wall to the trabeculae with the increase in η (the ratio of the trabecular radius to the distance between the center points of two trabeculae), which means the different stretching behaviors in these core structures. (3) Unlike the compressive mechanism of BEPs, by controlling and balancing the deformation degrees of the trabeculae and honeycomb walls, the flexural mechanism achieves a minimum core deformation and an optimal flexural performance. These results suggest a qualitative relationship between the deformation behavior of trabecular-honeycomb core structure and bending performance of the whole BEP, and provide a solid foundation for subsequent research and the considerable application potential of this biomimetic sandwich structure in many fields.