International Conference on Material Science and Application (ICMSA 2015)

Design of the Lightweight Structure Inspired by Beetle Elytra and Its

Mechanical and Thermal Properties
C. GUO1,a,*, T. XU1,b, Y. ZHOU1,c, D. LI1,d
1
Institute of Bio-inspired Structure and Surface Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and
Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
a
guozc@[Link], b425151303@[Link], czhouyizhouyi12@[Link],
d
lidongqau@[Link]
*Corresponding author

Keywords: Elytra, Microstructure, Bio-Inspired Structure, FEM, Epoxy Resin Based Carbon Fibre
Composite.

Abstract. Based on the microstructure of the cross section of the beetle elytra, a kind of
bio-inspired lightweight structure with fibre-winding pattern was designed and made by the carbon
fibre material. The mechanical and thermal properties of the lightweight structure were studied with
finite element method. At the same time, the quasi-static compression experiment was carried out.
The experimental result and the finite element analysis result were compared and analysed, which
proved the effectiveness of the finite element analysis. Additionally, the mechanical properties of
two kinds of structure units with the different fibre winding pattern were analysed and compared,
the result showed the structure with two layers of different fibre-winding patterns was better to
improve its mechanical performance. Also, thermal characteristics of the structure showed its
thermal protection property was favorable.

Introduction
As technology advances, many industries put forward the new requirements to the materials (e.g.,
higher specific intensity, specific rigidity, damage resistance), and many traditional materials and
structures can not meet industry requirements again. However, natural biological materials formed
many unique features through 35 million years of evolution in order to adapt to the environment and
satisfy the functional requirements with capabilities such as strong toughness, functional
adaptability and wound healing capabilities, et al, which are unsurpassed by conventional artificial
materials [1]. Now people try to get inspiration from nature to develop new bio-inspired composite
materials and structures. Since the 1980s, significant progress has been made in understanding the
structures and its special functions of the biological materials and the bionic research. Mehmet et al.
[2] studied the composite structure and the mechanical mechanism of pearl shell layer's
cross-section and developed the new ceramic matrix polymer and ceramic-metal composites, whose
fracture toughness improved 40% more than the conventional ones. According to the bamboo
structure feature with dense outside and sparse inside, Sun et al. [3] manufactured a novel kind of
double-layer carbon fibre materials whose bending strength and electrical properties were
significantly improved comparing with the traditional materials. Gordon et al. [4] used the
composite columns, plates and sandwich materials to imitate the spiral structure found in wood cells
and made glass fibre/epoxy composite materials with the significantly improved fracture toughness.
Beetle is a very large population in the nature, and their former wing in the evolutionary process
slowly evolved into elytra with high strength and fracture toughness [5-6]. Now, the beetle has
become a good bionic object for geometric design and material optimum of the novel materials and
structures. Chen et al. [7-9] studied the cross section structure and surface microstructure of
hercules beetle, and pointed out that the elytra is a sandwich structure with small columns as bridge
peers to connect the top and bottom layers. Chen also [10] fabricated a kind of composite laminate
with biomimetic fibre helicoidally rounding holes and examined the extrusion strength of the hole.
Yang [11,12] observed the cross-section microstructure of cybister elytra and measured the tensile

© 2015. The authors - Published by Atlantis Press 441

strength of the elytra, the experimental results showed that the elytra cross section is composed of
cavities, fibre bundles that connect inner layers to the outer cuticular layers, several chitin fibre
layers and a dense black epicuticle. The tensile test of the elytra showed that it has high specific
strength.
In this paper, on the basis of the microstructure of the cross section of Cybister (Cybister
tripunctatus Olivier) elytra, a bio-inspired structure with the fibre winding pattern was designed, its
mechanical and thermal properties were studied with FEM, and samples made of the epoxy resin
based carbon fibre composite were built, the quasi-static compression experiment was carried out to
verify the FEM result. Additionally, the effects of the different fibre winding patterns on structure
mechanical properties were analysed, the results showed the structure with two different
fibre-winding patterns has better mechanical performance than that of the structure with only one
fibre-winding pattern. On the other hand, thermal characteristics of the structure showed its thermal
protection property is favorable.

Bio-inspired Design of the Lightweight Structure

Microstructure Features of the Cross Section of Cybister Elytra
The microstructure of the cross section and the mechanical properties of the beetle elytra have
been studied by many researchers [13-18]. Fig.1 is the microstructure of the cross section of
cybister elytra, it is a typical sandwich structure, and composed of cavities, fibre bundles, chitin
fibre layers and a dense black epicuticle. The fibre bundles are braided in the parallel, perpendicular
and spatial helix ways, which improve the mechanical properties of elytra, such as intensity,
toughness, and peeling resistance, et al. According to references [11,12], the thickness of the
epicuticle, a single chitin fibre layer and the average diameter of cavities are 12, 2, 80-95m,
respectively, the cavities in the elytra effectively reduce the structure weight over a span of about
250m. The Cybister elytra have a duty ratio (cavity area to elytra area) of about 22% and density
of 0.89×103 kg/m3, while their average hardness and Young’s modulus are 0.48 and 8.21 GPa
respectively, and their transverse and longitudinal tensile strengths are as high as 169.2 ± 22.5 and
194.5 ±23.4 MPa respectively.

CAV FLPI

BP

EPI

Fig.1 Microstructures of the cross section of elytra. EPI, Epicuticle; FL, Fibre layers; CAV, Cavity;
BP, Bridge pier

Structural Design Inspired by Beetle Elytra

According to the morphological features of the cybister elytra, also referring to the model
suggested by Chen [8], a bio-inspired lightweight structure featured by cavities and hollow columns
which are composed of fibres braided in different patterns was suggested, and the number of fibre
layers and the orientations of fibres were shown in the cross-section of column (Fig. 2).

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 (a) (b)

Fig.2 Elytra inspired lightweight structure. (a) The bio-inspired structure; (b) The cross-section
structure of single hollow column. EP: Laminated plate; FL: spiral fibre layer; FB: vertical fibre
layer; HS: cavity; H: column holes

The Mechanical Properties of the Bio-inspired Lightweight Structure

Quasi-static Compression Analysis
FEM analysis of compression strength of the structure.
(1)Finite Element Modeling
To simplify FEM model, firstly, the structure composed of layers of fibres with the orientation
paralleled to the axis of column and paralleled horizontally in the upper and bottom planes was built
and analysed. The overall size of the model is 30 × 30 × 20 mm3, and the thickness of the upper and
bottom plane, the inner diameter of the small column and the wall thickness are 1.5mm, 3.5mm and
0.5mm, respectively. 3D model of the structures was built with pro/E software and then transferred
into ANSYS Workbench environment, the finite element type was Solid 186, and the total numbers
of nodes and elements of the structure were 60659, 31215 respectively, as shown in Fig. 3. The
material of the model was epoxy resin based carbon fibre composite, the same material was used to
build the structure samples. The material constants were set as Table 1.

Fig.3 The finite element model of the bio-inspired structure

Tab.1 The material properties of the model

material Elastic modulus Density Tensile strength
[GPa] [g/cm3] [MPa]
carbon fibre 253* 1.78 4980*
SU810 epoxy resin 2.5 1.2 55
* Elastic modulus and Tensile strength along the length of carbon fibre
(2)Load and boundary constraints
Similar to the load and boundary constraints in the quasi-static compression experiment of the
honeycomb structure [19], displacement was applied as a load to the top surface of the model step
by step. Here, the number of load steps should be chosen reasonably. The model bottom was fixed
for all six degrees of freedom (DOFs).
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 (3)Results Analysis
The compression force corresponding to the displacement of each sub-step was obtained through
finite element analysis, then, the force–displacement curve was determined (Fig. 4). It can be seen
that the compression force initially increased with the displacement, however, when the compression
force reached the critical yield limit, the force changed little as the displacement continued to
increase, demonstrating the structure has already reached the elastic–plastic stage，and its compression
limit load was 12.7KN. According to the equation =F/A, where F is the compression limit load
(N), and A is the area to bear the load (mm2), the compression strength of the structure was 14.1
MPa. Taking the average density of the structure into account, the specific compression strength
was 40.3 kN m/kg.

Fig.4 Comparison of the experimental results with the finite element analysis

Experimental Verification of FEM Analysis. In order to verify the reliability of the finite
element analysis, the structural samples were built from same material (Fig. 5), and a quasi-static
compression experiment was performed on an electronic universal testing machine with load
changing between 0 and 100 KN (Changchun, China).

Fig.5 Structure sample

The quasi-static compression was a single-direction force produced by moving the pressure head
with a constant velocity of 1 mm/min. The force produced on the pressure head and the
displacement due to the compression deformation of the sample were recorded and monitored by
sensors. The test results showed that the compression limit load was 11.6 KN. Comparing with the
FEM result, the error was 9.5%, the difference mainly came from the glue connections between the
columns and the top/bottom plates in the structural samples, which was not considered in the FEM
model, but definitely reduced the compression ability of samples. Fig. 4 compared the experimental
curve with the FEM analysis curve. Although there was a difference between the experimental and
analytical results, especially the force of the experimental curve sharply declined after reaching a
maximum owing to the structural fracture, while the force indicated by the analytical curve declined
gently, it was seen that the experimental results were in accordance with the analytical results at the
first stage, demonstrating the effectiveness and reliability of the finite element method analysis.
Shear Strength Analysis
FEM Model. The same 3D model in section 2.1 was used again. According to the reference [20],

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the bottom plane of the model was fixed for all six degrees of freedom, and the upper plane was
defined as the rigid plane without any deformation, and in-plane horizontal force was applied as the
shear force in Fig. 6(a).The material constants were just the same as in Table 1.
Results Analysis. The force and the corresponding displacement in each sub-step were obtained
through finite element analysis, and the shear force–displacement curve was determined as shown
in Fig. 6(b). According to the equation =Fmax/A and equation Geq=1000/A, where Fmax is the
maximum shear force (N), and A is the original area to bear the force (mm 2),  is the original
thickness of the sample (mm), and  is the linear slope of the straight-line fitting of the linear part of
the curve (N/mm), the shear strength of the bionic structure  was 1.8 MPa, and the equivalent shear
modulus Geq was 94.1Mpa.
The FEM results showed that the bio-inspired structure had excellent mechanical properties, its
specific compression strength was 40.3 kN m/kg, which was much higher than the values of 4~16
kN m/kg for stainless-steel hollow-sphere foam and Al foam [21], and its shear strength was 1.8
MPa, shear modulus was 94.1Mpa, both were greater than the values of T722 Nomex honeycomb
structure (=1.56 Mpa and Geq =59.2 Mpa) [22].

(a) (b)
(a) FEM of the structure; (b) The shear force–displacement curve of the structure
Fig.6 FEM analysis of the shear strength of the bio-inspired structure

The Effect of Different Fibre Winding Patterns on the Mechanical Properties of the Structure
As mentioned above, the fibre bundles of cybister’s elytra are braided in the parallel,
perpendicular and spatial helix ways, which improve the mechanical properties of elytra, and the
designed bio-inspired structure in this paper also was braided in fibres with two different patterns.
So, it is necessary to further analyse the effect of the fibre winding patterns on the mechanical
properties of the structure.

(a) (b)

Fig.7 Different fibre winding patterns: (a) vertically paralleled fibre + spatial helical fibre; (b)
two vertically paralleled fibres

3D FEM model. Here, the small hollow column with two different fibre winding patterns was built
as the FEM model, and two fibre winding patterns included the parallel and the spatial helical patterns.
In Fig.7, the column was wrapped in two layers of fibres, (a) was composed of one layer of vertically
paralleled fibre and one layer of the spatial helical fibre, and the helix angle was 65. (b) was
composed of two layers of vertically paralleled fibres. The finite element type was Solid 186, the

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material was the same as that of the bionic structure, material constants can be referred to Table 1.
Comparison of the Mechanical Properties of Two Columns. The quasi-static compression and
shear strength of two columns were analysed and compared with FEM. The load and boundary
constraints of the quasi-static compression analysis were the same as those mentioned in section 2.1,
and the load and boundary constraints of the shear strength analysis were defined as [23]: the top
plate of the model was fixed for all six degrees of freedom, while the bottom plate was fixed axially,
and horizontally shear force was applied to the middle part of the model. The compression
force–displacement curve and the shear force-displacement curve were determined as shown in Fig.
8~9.
It can be seen from Fig.8~Fig.9 that the shear strength of the column (a) was greater than that of
the column (b), while the compression strength of the former was smaller than that of the latter,
demonstrating the fibre braided in the vertically paralleled ways is more suitable to bear the
compression force. Thus, the bio-inspired structure with two different braiding patterns could
possess both mechanical advantages, and has better mechanical properties.

Fig.8 The compression force–displacement curve Fig.9 The shear force–displacement curve

The Thermal Property of the Bio-inspired Lightweight Structure

Considering the potential application in the field of aerospace, the thermal characteristics of the
bio-inspired lightweight structure should be investigated, too.
Thermal Boundary Conditions and Load
Initial Thermal Condition. The initial temperature of the lightweight structure was defined as
the ambient temperature 20ºC).
Boundary Conditions. There are three patterns of heat transfer: conduction, convection and
emission. Because temperature rise of the structure is low, the dissipating heat due to emission is
omitted.
Heat Transfer Coefficient. It was assumed that the structure was put in a closed room, and had
no heat exchange between the structure and outside environment. The convection belongs to natural
convection, and the heat transfer coefficient is 1~10W/(m•ºC)) [24], which is set as 5 W/(m•) in the
FEM analysis.
Conduction Coefficient. The conduction coefficients for the epoxy resin based carbon fibre
composite is 0.82W/(m•ºC) [25].

(a) Thermal model of the (b) Temperature distribution in (c) The curve of temperature
the steady state increase with time
structure
Fig.10 The thermal characteristics of the bio-inspired lightweight structure
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 Thermal Load. Considering the carbon fibre material should be used under 200ºC) in order to
maintain its normal mechanical properties [26], the thermal load applied to the upper surface of the
structure was set as 150ºC).
Thermal Analysis
ANSYS13.0 was utilized to analyze its thermal characteristics and calculate its temperature
distribution. The finite element model was shown as Fig. 10(a), it contains 22353 SOLID90
elements, and 44180 nodes. The temperature distribution of the structure in the steady state and the
temperature increase with respect to time were shown in Fig.10 (b) and Fig. 10(c).
It can be seen that the highest temperature of the bottom surface of the structure is 50.15ºC), and
the temperature increases to 45.7ºC) after 3600s, not yet reaches the heat balance, demonstrating the
thermal protection property of the elytra-inspired structure is favorable.

Conclusions
A beetle elytra-inspired lightweight structure was designed and made of carbon fibre material,
and its mechanical properties and thermal characteristics were studied with finite element method.
At the same time, the quasi-static compression experiment was carried out to verify the
effectiveness of the finite element analysis. The mechanical investigation of the bio-inspired
structure demonstrated that it has excellent mechanical properties, its specific compression strength
is 40.3 kN m/kg, much higher than the values of 4~16 kN m/kg for stainless-steel hollow-sphere
foam and Al foam, and its shear strength is 1.8 MPa, shear modulus is 94.1Mpa, both are greater
than the values of T722 Nomex honeycomb structure (=1.56 Mpa and Geq =59.2 Mpa).
Additionally, the mechanical properties of two kinds of structure units with the different fibre
winding patterns were analysed and compared, the results showed the structure with two layers of
different fibre-winding patterns is better to improve its mechanical performance. Also, thermal
characteristics of the structure showed its thermal protection property is favorable.

Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB302106), the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (51175249, 51475230), the Ph.D. Programs
Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (20123218110010), and the Aero-Science
Foundation of China (2013ZF52072).

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