MICROSTRUCTURE OF NATURAL BIOCOMPOSITES AND RESEARCH OF BIOMIMETIC COMPOSITES

Through untold centuries of evolutionary development, the insect exoskeleton has become a highly optimized structure suited to a variety of demanding duties. In this study, the structure of the exoskeleton of the insect was investigated for structural characteristics that may prove beneficial to advanced composite efforts. The arrangements of plies discovered in insect exoskeleton were applied to the biomimetic design and synthesis of the glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites. It was shown experimentally that the fracture toughness and the intensity of biomimetic plies are higher those that of conventional ones.