Mechanical properties of bio-mimetic energy-absorbing materials under impact loading

The elytra can protect the body and hind wings of the beetle by absorbing the impact energy and resisting damage from outside loading. In this paper, we firstly observed the microstructures of hollow column and pole canal in the ladybird beetle elytra and revealed the relationship between them. A bionic energy-absorbing structure inspired by ladybird beetle elytra was proposed, and a micron-scale finite element model was built. The mechanical characteristics of bionic structures with and without poles under axial impact loading were investigated by numerical simulations. It could be obtained that the poles could absorb the impact energy by its deformation. Then the parameter studies including the different impact velocities, the different column diameters, and the different thickness of cuticle were carried out. This parameter study shows that geometric variations and impact velocity have a significant influence on mechanical properties.