Research On Mechanical Properties And Micro-Structure Of Beetle's Elytra

During the millions of years'evolution, beetle's elytron has developed the special structure and function to adapt their survival environment. This thesis focuses on beetle Cybister tripunctatus in addition to some other species of beetles and studied the elytron's micro-structure. We found that there are many concaves,hollows and holes on its structure; the configuration of this material is compound samdwich; the linkage-structure between elytra adopts the concave-protuberant mesh joint with some bristle. All these micro-structure are very important to beetles'survival.After testing the mechanical property of elytron with nanoindentation, the experiment result shows that values of Cybister tripunctatus's elytron chitin are higher than the average values, and the mechanical property of different testing areas are dissimilar.For more investigation on the linkage-structure of elytra, the opening-closing process of elytra is recorded. Besides, the strength of linkage between the elytra was measured, and Protaetia brevitarsis has the strongest coupling force. At last, the elytra linkage-structure model was analysed by simulating its movement and analyzing its structure using Pro/Engineer, it is proved that the structure is especial and efficient. In conclusion, the control mechanism of beetle's elytron is quite complicated, and all the results of this thesis set up a basis for the further bionic design of structure and its optimization in the field of aviation and spaceflight.