Biomechanical aspects of the insect wing: an analysis using the finite element method.

Insect wings appear as highly functional and largely optimized mechanical constructions. A series of stabilizing constructional elements have been 'designed' to cope with loading during flight. One such element is the expenditure of material in constructing the wing, i.e. the vein system of the wing and its arrangement. It functions like a zig-zag folding framework which stiffens the wing against aerodynamic bending moments. To quantify the quality of material distribution, models of a dragonfly wing and of a fly wing were calculated using the finite element method (FEM).