Beetle Elytron-Inspired Structures for Enhanced Impact Resistance in Aircraft and Automotive Shell Components

In aerospace and automotive engineering, improving impact resistance while maintaining lightweight structures is critical, particularly for shell components. Bio-inspired beetle elytron plates (BEPs) offer promising solutions due to their natural design, providing enhanced mechanical performance under impact conditions [1][2].

This study focuses on end-trabecular beetle elytron plates (EBEPs) and grid beetle elytron plates (GBEPs) fabricated through additive manufacturing with eco-friendly materials. These plates were compared to conventional honeycomb (HPs) and grid plates (GPs) under 10 J impact energy. Dynamic impact tests using a drop hammer system measured peak force and other key indicators.

The results show that EBEP and GBEP significantly outperformed conventional plates, with energy absorption increasing by 7% to 10% and with deformation reduced by over 5%. These designs provided up to 15% more stable impact resistance and around 12% higher mean force retention, demonstrating greater structural integrity under repeated impacts.

The findings highlight the potential of bio-inspired plates for enhancing impact resistance in aerospace and automotive shell components. Our research group has already developed methods to design and fabricate curved beetle elytron plates [3][4], and future studies will focus on low-velocity impact tests to further address the demands of lightweight, high-strength structures.

[1] Song, Y., et al. Extraction and reconstruction of a beetle forewing cross-section point set and its curvature characteristics. Pattern Analysis Applications 25, 77–87 (2022).
[2] Song, Y., et al. Free vibration properties of beetle elytron plate: Composite material, stacked structure and boundary conditions. Mechanics of Materials, 185, 104754 (2023).
[3] Song, Y., et al. Clamping method and mechanical properties of aluminum honeycomb cylindrical curved plates under radial compression. Journal of Sandwich Structures & Materials, 24(8), 2142–2152 (2022).
[4] Song, Y., et al. A novel cylindrical sandwich plate inspired by beetle elytra and its compressive properties. Science China Technological Sciences (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-023-2524-7