Experimental Investigation on the Low-velocity Impact of Beetle Elytron-inspired Plates

Experimental Investigation on the Low-velocity Impact of Beetle Elytron-inspired Plates | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Experimental Investigation on the Low-velocity Impact of Beetle Elytron-inspired Plates Yiheng Song, Haixia Yang, Yanlan Liu, Jinxiang Chen This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4938731/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract The elytra of beetles feature a naturally evolved sandwich structure that offers a lightweight and protective function, especially effective against falling object impacts in complex environments. Consequently, structures mimicking the design of beetle elytra hold potential applications in fields requiring resistance to low-speed impacts, such as civil automotive and aviation industries. This study investigates the impact resistance of two beetle-inspired sandwich plates, end- trabecular beetle elytron plates (EBEP) and grid beetle elytron plates (GBEP), comparing their performance with widely used honeycomb plates (HP) and grid plates (GP). Utilizing 3D printing technology and environmentally friendly polylactic acid (PLA) as the material, samples of these four types of sandwich plates were integrally fabricated and tested under a 10 J impact energy to assess their impact response, damage mode, and characteristics. The results showed that, compared to HP and GP, the average peak force of EBEP and GBEP increased by 29.38% and 17.06%, respectively. Additionally, GBEP's impact resistance indicators, including specific energy absorption (SEA), were 2.9% to 5.4% higher than those of GP, with maximum peak force (MPF), mean compressive force (Fm), and crush force efficiency (CFE) increasing by 5.0%, 24.5%, and 17.8%, respectively. For EBEP, apart from a slight decrease in CFE (2.6%), SEA was 7.8% to 9.2% higher than HP's, while MPF and Fm increased by 18.2% and 15.2%, respectively. Furthermore, damage analysis revealed that the central residual indentation depth of HP was 640% greater than that of EBEP, and GP's was 63.1% greater than that of EBEP. These experimental results validate that beetle plates have significant advantages in load-bearing capacity and impact resistance. Mechanical Engineering Aeronautics and Astronautics Materials Engineering beetle elytra anti-impact properties damage characteristics enhancement mechanism Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4938731","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":342470545,"identity":"864110e0-f18d-487f-a914-05b05d846749","order_by":0,"name":"Yiheng Song","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yiheng","middleName":"","lastName":"Song","suffix":""},{"id":342470546,"identity":"46662d9b-58a9-4fec-ac82-5e31a91893cd","order_by":1,"name":"Haixia Yang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"School of Civil Engineering, 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naturally evolved sandwich structure that offers a lightweight and protective function, especially effective against falling object impacts in complex environments. Consequently, structures mimicking the design of beetle elytra hold potential applications in fields requiring resistance to low-speed impacts, such as civil automotive and aviation industries. This study investigates the impact resistance of two beetle-inspired sandwich plates, end- trabecular beetle elytron plates (EBEP) and grid beetle elytron plates (GBEP), comparing their performance with widely used honeycomb plates (HP) and grid plates (GP). Utilizing 3D printing technology and environmentally friendly polylactic acid (PLA) as the material, samples of these four types of sandwich plates were integrally fabricated and tested under a 10 J impact energy to assess their impact response, damage mode, and characteristics. The results showed that, compared to HP and GP, the average peak force of EBEP and GBEP increased by 29.38% and 17.06%, respectively. 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