Fabrication and study of beetle elytra inspired structure porous metals

A method has been developed for manufacturing beetle-elytra-inspired (BEI) porous metal structure. Machining (mainly stamping) was combined with electric resistance welding (ERW) and electrode position in the method. Models of bioinspired lightweight structures were created based on the macro/micro structures of the elytra of Cybister japonicus. Through five steps, three types of samples were fabricated with the expected structures and sizes. Quasi static compression experiments were performed under normal conditions, which indicated that it had better compressive strength than typical high-quality cellular metals. The lightweight bio-inspired structures were also studied using the finite element method (FEM). The experimentally measured compressive strengths were compared with the results obtained from the FEM analysis and were found to be consistent, demonstrating that FEM is effective for analysing the compressive strength of the lightweight structures.