Investigation of the effects of constructional elements on the biomechanical behavior of desert locust hind wing

This paper investigates the effects of constructional elements on the biomechanical behavior of desert locust hind wing. First, the microstructure of the insect wing is investigated using scanning electron microscope. The results of the scanning electron microscopy are used to develop finite element models of the wing with different constructional elements. The presented models are studied under the inertial and aerodynamic loads applied during flight and the obtained stresses and displacements are assessed. The results show that longitudinal veins, longitudinal and cross veins, corrugations, corrugations and longitudinal veins and finally a combination of corrugations and longitudinal and cross veins cause averagely 4, 25.75, 4.34, 184.54, 768.5 times decrease of the achieved principal stresses in comparison with a wing without the mentioned constructional elements. Constructional elements of the locust wing play an important role to uniform the pattern of stress distribution in the wing during flight. Further, the existence of the mentioned constructional elements causes a decrease in the variation of the stress within a stroke-cycle. In addition, it is shown that the inertia and aerodynamic forces have less effect on the wing deformation than the elastic ones. The results of this research may be helpful in the development of lightweight structures with high strength.