Institute of Zoology, Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, Germany; Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran.
Young Researchers and Elite Club, Lahijan Branch , Islamic Azad University , Lahijan , Iran.
R Soc Open Sci. 2016 Feb 17;3(2):160006. doi: 10.1098/rsos.160006. eCollection 2016 Feb.
Insect wing veins are biological composites of chitin and protein arranged in a complex lamellar configuration. Although these hierarchical structures are found in many 'venous wings' of insects, very little is known about their physical and mechanical characteristics. For the first time, we carried out a systematic comparative study to gain a better understanding of the influence of microstructure on the mechanical characteristics and damping behaviour of the veins. Morphological data have been used to develop a series of three-dimensional numerical models with different material properties and geometries. Finite-element analysis has been employed to simulate the mechanical response of the models under different loading conditions. The modelling strategy used in this study enabled us to determine the effects selectively induced by resilin, friction between layers, shape of the cross section, material composition and layered structure on the stiffness and damping characteristics of wing veins. Numerical simulations suggest that although the presence of the resilin-dominated endocuticle layer results in a much higher flexibility of wing veins, the dumbbell-shaped cross section increases their bending rigidity. Our study further shows that the rubber-like cuticle, friction between layers and material gradient-based design contribute to the higher damping capacity of veins. The results of this study can serve as a reference for the design of novel bioinspired composite structures.
昆虫翅膀的翅脉是由排列在复杂层状结构中的几丁质和蛋白质组成的生物复合材料。尽管这些层次结构存在于昆虫的许多“静脉翅”中，但人们对它们的物理和机械特性知之甚少。我们首次进行了系统的比较研究，以更好地了解微观结构对翅脉的机械特性和阻尼行为的影响。形态学数据被用于开发一系列具有不同材料性能和几何形状的三维数值模型。有限元分析被用于模拟模型在不同加载条件下的力学响应。本研究中使用的建模策略使我们能够确定由富含几丁质的表皮层、层间摩擦、横截面形状、材料组成和层状结构选择性引起的对翅脉刚度和阻尼特性的影响。数值模拟表明，尽管富含几丁质的表皮层的存在导致翅脉具有更高的柔韧性，但哑铃形横截面增加了它们的弯曲刚度。我们的研究进一步表明，橡胶状的角质层、层间摩擦和基于材料梯度的设计有助于提高翅脉的阻尼能力。本研究的结果可以为新型仿生复合材料结构的设计提供参考。
