Abstract: Dragonfly wings, which consist of the veins and membranes, are highly specialized flight organs adapted to cope with the individual flight behavior of each dragonfly. Therefore, it is important and necessary from a bionic view that the investigation on microstructure of elements how to affect their mechanical behaviors. In this study, we focus on effects of microstructure on mechanical characteristics of dragonfly wing vein. These results indicate that the microstructure of vein is a complex sandwich structure due to being obviously superior to one typical material, which consists of chitin shell and protein meat with some fibrils. This sandwich structure can be subjected to the rather greater bending loading and torsional deformation based on the von Mises stress and flexural deformation analysis of finite element method (FEM). They assist us to understand and design the new high strength-to-weight ratio of composite materials or structure.

Accepted by Composites Science and Technology