The compressive mechanical properties of honeycomb plates and beetle elytron plates with different foam densities and height-to-thickness ratios

Abstract

To investigate a new type of bionic energy-saving sandwich plate—the beetle elytron plate (BEP), the compressive mechanical properties of short basalt fiber reinforced epoxy resin composite BEPs and honeycomb plates with different polyvinyl chloride foam densities and height-to-thickness ratios were investigated. The mechanism of the coupling effect of the core structure, foam density and height-to-thickness ratio was revealed by observing the failure mode of the outer and inner ring honeycomb walls. This study can provide useful instruction for designing lightweight sandwich structures and accelerate the application of BEPs in engineering.