In-plane elasticity of beetle elytra inspired sandwich cores

The Beetle Elytron Plate (BEP) is a new class of biomimetic sandwich core that features excellent compressive strength, energy absorption capacity and flexural properties. These characteristics make BEPs suitable as po-tential replacements of classical honeycomb cores in sandwich panels. This work describes the behaviour of the in-plane engineering elastic constants of parametric BEP topologies for the first time. The beetle elytron cores configurations are simulated using Finite Element models, including full-scale models and representative unit cells with periodic boundary conditions for asymptotic homogenization. The models are also benchmarked against experimental results obtained from ASTM tensile tests related to the in-plane Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio and shear modulus. The benchmarked models are then used to perform a parametric analysis against the geometry characteristics of the cellular configurations. Results obtained from this work will provide a solid foundation for further research on BEP structures and expand their applications into wider engineering fields.

Automated summary

This study presents the behavior of the in-plane engineering elastic constants of beetle elytron plate (BEP) topologies and validates the models with simulations and experimental results. The obtained results will serve as a solid foundation for further research and application of BEP structures.