Use of a digital image correlation technique for measuring the material properties of beetle wing

Abstract

Beetle wings are very specialized flight organs consisting of the veins and membranes. Therefore it is necessary from a bionic view to investigate the material properties of a beetle wing experimentally. In the present study, we have used a Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique to measure the elastic modulus of a beetle wing membrane. Specimens were prepared by carefully cutting a beetle hind wing into 3.0 mm by 7.0 mm segments (the gage length was 5 mm). We used a scanning electron microscope for a precise measurement of the thickness of the beetle wing membrane. The specimen was attached to a designed fixture to induce a uniform displacement by means of a micromanipulator. We used an ARAMIS™ system based on the digital image correlation technique to measure the corresponding displacement of a specimen. The thickness of the beetle wing varied at different points of the membrane. The elastic modulus differed in relation to the membrane arrangement showing a structural anisotropy; the elastic modulus in the chordwise direction is approximately 2.65 GPa, which is three times larger than the elastic modulus in the spanwise direction of 0.84 GPa. As a result, the digital image correlation-based ARAMIS system was successfully used to measure the elastic modulus of a beetle wing. In addition to membrane’s elastic modulus, we considered the Poisson’s ratio of the membrane and measured the elastic modulus of a vein using an Instron universal tensile machine. The result reveals the Poisson’s ratio is nearly zero and the elastic modulus of a vein is about 11 GPa.