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Large Curvature Folding Strategies of Butterfly Proboscis

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Abstract

Due to its real-time control, high folding ratio, and structure self-locking, flexible large curvature self-folding devices have broad application prospects, such as foldable human implants, flexible electronics, and flexible robots. Driven by this background, flexible large curvature folding butterfly (Polyura eudamippus) proboscises were studied in this work. The folding ratio of the proboscises was about 15. The curvature of coiled proboscises ranged from about 150 m−1 to 880 m−1. The external and internal structures of the proboscises were studied by different methods. Three main strategies for large-curvature folding of proboscises were identified: a gradual decrease in thickness, a lower elastic modulus, and (most importantly) large numbers of regular corrugated cracks arranged on the surface. These corrugated cracks can effectively accommodate the coiled strain and provide space for the large curvature folding of proboscises. Finally, a 4D printed coiled sample with corrugated cracks was fabricated to mimic the proboscises stretching process. Large-curvature folding strategies, based on these proboscises, provide insights for the biomimetic design of artificial highly folded components.

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Acknowledgment

This work was funded by the project of National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFA0703300), the Program for HUST Academic Frontier Youth Team of “4D Printing Technology” (No. 2018QYTD04), Science and Technology Project of Wuhan (No. 2018010401011281), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (No. 2018CFB502), State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (No. P2019-006), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2019M650648), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No. 3204043) and Opening Project of the Key Laboratory of Bionic Engineering (Ministry of Education), Jilin University (No. K201901, No. K201903).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Material Processing and Die & Mould Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Daobing Chen, Yang Liu, Keyu Chen, Chong Wang, Shifeng Wen, Chunze Yan & Yusheng Shi

  2. The Key Laboratory of Bionic Engineering (Ministry of Education), Jilin University, Changchun, 130022, China

    Daobing Chen, Honglie Song, Qingping Liu, Junqiu Zhang & Zhiwu Han

  3. Applied Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Honglie Song

  4. Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Jie Gan & Yan Zhou

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  1. Daobing Chen
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  2. Honglie Song
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  3. Qingping Liu
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  4. Jie Gan
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  5. Yang Liu
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  8. Shifeng Wen
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  9. Yan Zhou
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  10. Chunze Yan
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  12. Yusheng Shi
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  13. Zhiwu Han
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Correspondence to Shifeng Wen or Yan Zhou.

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Chen, D., Song, H., Liu, Q. et al. Large Curvature Folding Strategies of Butterfly Proboscis. J Bionic Eng 17, 1239–1250 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-020-0089-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-020-0089-1

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