ENERGY ABSORBING STRUCTURES IMITATING TRABECULAR OF BEETLE CUTICLES

Beetles cuticles have delicate and complicated body structures. In this paper several models are developed based on the observation of microstructures of beetle cuticles. The analysis for capability of energy-absorbing of beetle cuticles are presented with the nonlinear finite element software ANSYS/LS-DYNA. The discussions on effects of structures and materials are provided. The structures of original models are improved to make them resemble the trabecular structure of beetle cuticles for larger energy absorptions. A comparison is carried out between the improved model and cylindrical tube in terms of static and dynamic axial impact responses. The results show that the improved model absorbs more energy and performs in more stability way than the tube. This makes it an excellent structure for the device of structural crashworthy and energy absorption.