Novel Skin-Reinforcement Design by Cross–Longitudinal Layout Inspired by Dragonfly Wing

Abstract

The objective of this study is to develop a novel aircraft design approach using biomimetics as an alternative to traditional airframes. This approach is primarily inspired by the dragonfly wing, which possesses reinforcement structures composed of cross veins and longitudinal veins. These structures are assumed to regulate deformation and enhance stiffness, respectively. The cross veins were replicated using weighted centroidal Voronoi tessellation (WCVT) based on the out-of-plane displacement of the skin. In contrast, the longitudinal veins were replicated by extracting a centerline from the topology optimization (TO) results on the skin, achieved through image analysis techniques such as binarization and skeletonization. The longitudinal layout effectively reduces compliance by distributing internal loads, utilizing only essential reinforcements on the skin without increasing its mass. The WCVT layout significantly enhances the buckling resistance of the reinforced skin. As a result, the skin reinforced using both cross–longitudinal layouts from TO and WCVT exhibited a buckling load 2.7 times greater while maintaining a lower mass compared to conventional layouts.