Article

Ant-Inspired Bionic Design Method for the Support Structure

of the Fengyun-3 Satellite Payload Infilled with
Lattice Structure
Hang Li 1,2, Ruiyao Liu 3, Haijun Wang 4, Renlong Xin 1, Zhenbang Xu 2,* and Zhenglei Yu 1,*

1 Key Laboratory of Engineering Bionics, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun 130022, China
2 Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Changchun 130022, China
3 Department of Mechanics, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Jilin University,

Changchun 130022, China

4 China Key Laboratory for Cross-Scale Micro and Nano Manufacturing, Ministry of Education,

Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun 130012, China

* Correspondence: [email protected] (Z.X.); [email protected] (Z.Y.)

Abstract: Owing to their high design freedom and excellent performance, lattice structures have
shown outstanding capabilities and great potential in aeronautics and astronautics fields. In this
paper, we propose a method to construct lattice structures by parameterizing biological features.
An ant-leg configuration is used as the bionic object to generate a bionic lightweight design with a
gradient lattice structure. To achieve the above goal, an innovative optimization method combining
topology optimization, size optimization, and a bionic lattice structure is proposed in this paper.
Taking the support structure of the Fengyun-3 satellite payload as the research object, this
optimization method is applied to optimize the design. Further, the reconstructed optimization
model and the original model are simulated to evaluate and compare the structural performance.
The simulation results show that when combined with bionic lattice structure and structural
optimization, the method can achieve the lightweight design goal while ensuring the stiffness and
strength of the structure. The results demonstrate that the application of a bionic lattice design in a
Citation: Li, H.; Liu, R.; Wang, H.;
lightweight design has feasibility and expectable potential.
Xin, R.; Xu, Z.; Yu, Z. Ant-Inspired
Bionic Design Method for the
Support Structure of the Fengyun-3
Keywords: lattice structure; structural bionic; lightweight design; topology optimization; aerospace
Satellite Payload Infilled with Lattice support structure
Structure. Materials 2023, 16, 736.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16020736

Academic Editor: Tomasz

1. Introduction
Trzepieciński
In the aerospace field, lightweight design is the orientation that scholars strive to
Received: 14 November 2022
pursue [1,2]. The support structure is the main load-bearing component of an aerospace
Revised: 16 December 2022
load but also the component with the largest proportion of mass, generally accounting for
Accepted: 30 December 2022
Published: 11 January 2023
40–50% [3]. Therefore, the lightweight design of a support structure is particularly
significant. Traditional lightweight design methods include topology optimization, shape
optimization, and size optimization. Topology optimization is often used as a tool to find
effective design concepts in the early design stage, while size optimization and shape
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
optimization are tools for later detailed designs [4–6]. But the results of topology
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
optimization are often complex and unmanufacturable. In consequence, the complexity
distributed under the terms and
of optimization results has become a barrier to processing and manufacturing [7–9].
conditions of the Creative Commons As a lightweight structure, lattice provides high performance such as high specific
Attribution (CC BY) license stiffness, accompanied by a relatively low density and good energy absorption
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses characteristics. A 3D lattice structure is believed to be a significant structure for weight
/by/4.0/). reduction [10–12]. In the past few years, honeycomb cellular lattice has been regarded as

Materials 2023, 16, 736. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16020736 www.mdpi.com/journal/materials

Materials 2023, 16, 736 2 of 16

the most classical lattice structure and applied in aerospace, medical, and engineering
products [13–15]. The superior structural characteristics of truss lattice have also attracted
the attention of many researchers. Wang et al. presented a composite sandwich structure
with a pyramidal truss core, which had excellent mechanical behavior [16–18]. Rathbun
et al. fabricated metallic sandwich panels with tetrahedral truss cores [19–21].
Nevertheless, the bending-dominated deformation of the lattice cannot fully utilize the
load-carrying properties of materials [22–24]. Additionally, the lattice cores are liable to
buckling under compressive loads, while the thick core leads to large spacing between
nodes, which weakens the resistance to local panel buckling [25–27]. Although the
development of additive manufacturing has broken the shackles of traditional
manufacturing technology and provided opportunities for the production of lattice
structures [28–30], owing to the structural defects and the challenges encountered in
traditional manufacturing difficulties, the application of 3D lattice structures in aerospace
and aeronautical support structures remains a significant challenge.
Over 500 million years of evolution, natural organisms have developed many
structural types with excellent mechanical properties, thanks to selective pressures from
their living environment [31–33]. For example, the internal gloss layer of many mollusk
shells has excellent mechanical properties, and its hierarchical arrangement can be used
as a guide for the design of high-strength and lightweight materials or structures [34]. In
addition, deer antlers, bones, and teeth all show outstanding mechanical properties. Deer
antler can endure bending without damage and has impact resistance [35]. Bones and
teeth can maintain a large compressive force without bending or cracking [36–38]. Some
efforts have been made to apply these advantages to the design of aircraft structures,
including aircraft-reinforcing frames and small wings [39–41]. As a typical microhexapod
structure, foraging workers of ants often carry food loads many times their body weight.
The well-developed legs of ants show an excellent load-carrying ability, as well as the
double improvement of strength and stability. Scholars have studied the biological
characteristics of ants. The well-known size-grain hypothesis predicts that small ants
should have smaller legs than larger ants, and ants that forage in flat environments are
generally larger than those that forage in more-complex environments [42,43]. This
configuration is very promising for supporting structures and can provide guidance for
lightweight designs. However, as far as we know, there is no research on the application
of ant carrying capacity in lightweight structure design.
In this article, 14 lattice structures are designed on the basis of the research of ant-leg
configuration characteristics inspired by ants’ incredible carrying capacity. And their
mechanical performance is verified by using the finite element method (FEM), conducting
a vibration experiment, and conducting a compression experiment. Furthermore, the
lightweight design of the support structure of the Fengyun-3 satellite payload is realized
by integrating topology optimization, bio-inspired lattice structure filling, and size
optimization. The configuration principles of ant legs are applied to fill part of the support
structure. By comparing the stiffness and strength of the original model and the optimized
model, it is proved that the proposed bionic lattice lightweight method has certain
advantages, which will provide guidance for the lightweight design of support structures
in the aerospace field.

2. Prototype Structure of Ants

2.1. Lectotype of Ants
Camponotus is the largest ant genus in the world, belonging to Formicinae. It prefers
digging trees damaged by water and is good at carrying and hiking. Black-gold Turkish
Camponotus is a typical Camponotus. Messor structor, belonging to the subfamily
Myrmicinae, lives mainly in grasslands, in dry areas, and near human-inhabited villages.
It has the characteristics of collecting plant seeds as food reserves, peeling seeds, and
storing seeds in a nest. There are three sizes of worker ant: large, medium, and small.
Materials 2023, 16, 736 3 of 16

Large worker ants are usually responsible for carrying food, defending, and killing. In
order to observe the load-carrying morphology of ants, the large worker ants in black-
gold Turkish Camponotus and Messor structor were collected for research.
Black-gold Turkish Camponotus and Messor structor were collected from Xinjiang
Province, China (73°40′–96°18′ E, 34°25′–48°10′ N). The ants were kept in tubes under long-
day conditions (25 ± 1 °C; 50% RH) at the College of Biological and Agricultural
Engineering Jilin University, Changchun, China.

2.2. Ants in Static Morphology

In the experiments, only adult worker ants are used. Specifically, 10 samples are
randomly selected from the two types of ants collected (black-gold Turkish Camponotus
and Messor structor). The samples are washed with water, sorted, and stored in 80%
alcohol. Then, the samples are dried at room temperature for 12 h. Finally, all the samples
are identified and counted.
Digital image acquisition and leg length measurements are performed using a Canon
EOS 750 D digital camera (Canon, Tokyo, Japan) attached to a 3D electron microscope Jt-
h800 system (Sunny, Changchun, Jilin, China).
For each ant, five standard linear measurements are taken using a visual micrometer
mounted on the 3D electron microscope, and the average value is taken to the accuracy of
0.01 mm: fore tibia length, fore femur length, middle tibia length, middle femur length,
hind tibia length, and hind femur length (Xin, R., Changchun, Jilin, China).
According to the top and side views of the black-gold Turkish Camponotus (Figure
1(A1,A2)) and the Messor structor (Figure 1(B1,B2)) in the static morphology, we find that
the lower limbs of ants are composed mainly of a femur and a tibia, with the same
structure as the human femur and with a similar skeleton to that of human lower limbs.
According to the measurement of sample data, the summary is as follows: The femur
lengths of the fore legs of the black-gold Turkish Camponotus are 1.97–2.16 mm, while
that of the Messor structor are 2.24–2.97 mm. The tibia lengths of the fore legs of the black-
gold Turkish Camponotus are 3.17–3.88 mm, while that of the Messor structor are 3.59–
4.77 mm. The femur lengths of the middle legs of the black-gold Turkish Camponotus are
1.98–2.36 mm, while that of the Messor structor are 2.97–3.26 mm. The tibia lengths of the
middle legs of the black-gold Turkish Camponotus are 3.82–4.73 mm, while that of the
Messor structor are 5.38–6.74 mm. The femur lengths of the hind legs of the black-gold
Turkish Camponotus are 2.31–2.54 mm, while that of the Messor structor are 3.32–3.70
mm. The tibia lengths of the hind legs of the black-gold Turkish Camponotus are 4.62–
6.25 mm, while that of the Messor structor are 7.52–8.69 mm. Moreover, we find that the
fore legs of all the samples are the shortest (Figure 1(A3,B3)). The middle legs are relatively
longer (Figure 1(A4,B4)). The hind legs of all the samples are found to be the longest
(Figure 1(A5,B5)). Further, we find that the ratios of tibia to femur for all samples are 1.6,
1.8, 2.0, 2.2, and 2.5, respectively.
Materials 2023, 16, 736 4 of 16

Figure 1. Body structure of ants. (A1) Top view of black-gold Turkish Camponotus in the static
morphology. (A2) Side view of black-gold Turkish Camponotus in the static morphology. (A3)
Magnified fore leg of black-gold Turkish Camponotus. (A4) Magnified middle leg of black-gold
Turkish Camponotus. (A5) Magnified hind leg of black-gold Turkish Camponotus. (A6) Top view
of black-gold Turkish Camponotus in the load-carrying morphology. (A7) Side view of black-gold
Turkish Camponotus in the load-carrying morphology. (B1) Top view of Messor structor in the
static morphology. (B2) Side view of Messor structor in the static morphology. (B3) Magnified fore
leg of Messor structor. (B4) Magnified middle leg of Messor structor. (B5) Magnified hind leg of
Messor structor. (B6) Top view of Messor structor in the load-carrying morphology. (B7) Side view
of Messor structor in the load-carrying morphology.

2.3. Ants in Load-Carrying Morphology

In this experiment, the load-carrying morphologies of the Black-gold Turkish
Camponotus and the Messor structor are analyzed from video recordings. Video files are
recorded using a Canon EOS 750 D digital camera (Canon, Tokyo, Japan) with a macro
Materials 2023, 16, 736 5 of 16

lens (Canon RF 100 mm F 2.8 L Macro IS USM, Canon, Tokyo, Japan; lens focal length: 100
mm) for about 1 min. In order to observe tiny details, the camera is set to 0.26 m extreme
macro mode.
As exhibited in Figure 1(A6,B6), the left front leg and the right hind leg, the right
front leg and the left hind leg, and the middle two legs are almost in straight lines for the
two kinds of ants, so as to form a more stable state. For black-gold Turkish Camponotus,
the angle between the femur and the tibia of the front and hind legs is approximately 45°,
the angle between tibia of the front and hind legs and the horizontal axis is approximately
65°. The angle between the femur and tibia of the middle legs is approximately 30°, and
the angle between tibia of the middle legs and the horizontal axis is approximately 70°.
Correspondingly, the angle between the femur and the tibia of the front and hind
legs of the Messor structor is approximately 65°, and the angle between tibia of the front
and hind legs and the horizontal axis is approximately 75°. Additionally, the angle
between the femur and the tibia of the middle legs is approximately 45°, and the angle
between tibia of the middle legs and the horizontal axis is approximately 80°.

3. Construction of Bio-inspired Ant Lattice Structure

3.1. Design of Bio-inspired Ant Lattice Structure
Inspired by ants, the lattice structure is designed with a total of 12 sides, including
six short sides and six long sides, as depicted in Figure 2a,b. The short side
corresponds to the femur of an ant, and the long side corresponds to the tibia of an ant.
The left front leg and the right hind leg, on one hand, and the right front leg and the left
hind leg, on the other, are respectively on the diagonal section of the cube, and the left
middle leg and right middle leg are on the middle section of the cube. In order to simplify
the model, it is assumed that the left front leg and the right hind leg, on one hand, and the
right front leg and the left hind leg, on the other, have the same parameters: the length of
the short side , the length of the long side , the angle between the short side and the
long side , and the angle between the long leg and the horizontal axis , where the
subscript represents the diagonal section, as exhibited in Figure 2d. Correspondingly,
the short side, the long side, the angle of the left middle leg and the right middle leg, and
the angle between the long leg and the horizontal axis are , , and ,
respectively, where the subscript represents the middle section, as exhibited in Figure
2c.
Materials 2023, 16, 736 6 of 16

Figure 2. Bio-inspired ant lattice structure design. (a) Top view of 3D parameterized model, (b)
three-dimensional drawing of parameterized model, (c) parameters of middle section, (d)
parameters of diagonal section, and (e) three-dimensional drawing of bio-inspired ant lattice
structure.

For the diagonal section, based on the Pythagorean theorem, the following equation
is satisfied:

(1)

For the middle section, based on the Pythagorean theorem, the following equation is
satisfied:
(2)
where represents the macroheight of the ant lattice.
According to the research on the static morphology of the Black-gold Turkish
Camponotus and the Messor structor, the ratio of the long side to the short side can
be taken as 1.6, 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, and 2.5. According to the research on the load-carrying
morphology pf the Black-gold Turkish Camponotus and the Messor structor, the diagonal
section the angle between the short side and the long side can be taken as 45° and
65°, respectively, and the equivalent angle between the long leg and the horizontal axis
can be taken as 65° and 75°, respectively. For the middle section, the angle between
the short side and the long side can be taken as 30° and 45°, respectively, and the
equivalent angle between the long leg and the horizontal axis can be taken as 70° and
80°, respectively. In addition, two random ratios of the long leg to the short leg, 2.7 and
3.0, respectively, are introduced for comparison. Based on the above data, 14 bionic lattice
structures are established. According to the ratio of length change, the angle between the
short side and the long side in the diagonal section, the equivalent angle between the long
leg and the horizontal axis in the diagonal section, the angle between the short side and
the long side in the middle section, and the equivalent angle between the long leg and the
horizontal axis in the middle section, 14 lattice structures are defined: FBTC1, FMS1,
FBTC2, FMS2, MBTC1, MMS1, MBTC2, MMS2, HBTC1, HMS1, RBTC1, RMS1, RBTC2,
and RMS2. The specific parameters of the 14 lattice structures are shown in Table 1.
Materials 2023, 16, 736 7 of 16

Table 1. The specific parameters of bionic cell structures.

No. Units Fundamental Frequency

1 FBTC1 1.6 45° 65° 30° 70° 3564
2 FMS1 1.6 65° 75° 45° 80° 3145
3 FBTC2 1.8 45° 65° 30° 70° 4713
4 FMS2 1.8 65° 75° 45° 80° 4342
5 MBTC1 2.0 45° 65° 30° 70° 5326
6 MMS1 2.0 65° 75° 45° 80° 4832
7 MBTC2 2.2 45° 65° 30° 70° 5946
8 MMS2 2.2 65° 75° 45° 80° 5453
9 HBTC1 2.5 45° 65° 30° 70° 6794
10 HMS1 2.5 65° 75° 45° 80° 6287
11 RBTC1 2.7 45° 65° 30° 70° 6024
12 RMS1 2.7 65° 75° 45° 80° 5461
13 RBTC2 3.0 45° 65° 30° 70° 5277
14 RMS2 3.0 65° 75° 45° 80° 4795
The outer envelope size of all units is 10 × 10 × 10 mm3, and the macroheight of the ant lattice
. Note: (1) fore black-gold Turkish Camponotus 1 cell structure, (2) fore Messor
structor 1 cell structure, (3) fore black-gold Turkish Camponotus 2 cell structure (4) fore Messor
structor 2 cell structure, (5) middle black-gold Turkish Camponotus 1 cell structure, (6) middle
Messor structor 1 cell structure, (7) middle black-gold Turkish Camponotus 2 cell structure, (8)
middle Messor structor 2 cell structure, (9) hind black-gold Turkish Camponotus 1 cell structure,
(10) hind Messor structor 1 cell structure, (11) random black-gold Turkish Camponotus 1 cell
structure, (12) random Messor structor 1 cell structure, (13) random black-gold Turkish Camponotus
2 cell structure, and (14) random Messor structor 2 cell structure.

3.2. Finite Element Analysis

In this chapter, the stability of these lattices is verified by conducting a simulation
analysis. First, the stability of the unit is tested. The finite element modeling of these 14
units is carried out by using the commercial software MSC/Patran [44], as shown in Figure
3b. In order to ensure the accuracy of the calculation, the mesh size of 0.5 mm is selected
for modeling. The boundary conditions are uniformly set to full constraints at the ends of
the six long sides in Figure 3c. The same material is used for the finite element model of
these units.
According to Table 1, under the same load-bearing form (when the values of and
are constant), the fundamental frequency of these units increases with the increase in
the ratio of long legs to short legs. When the ratio of long legs to short legs reaches 2.5, the
fundamental frequency of the unit reaches the maximum. After that, with the increase in
the ratio of long legs to short legs, the fundamental frequency of the unit gradually
decreases. Correspondingly, when the ratio of long legs to short legs is constant, the
fundamental frequency under the first load-bearing form is higher. By comparison, the
fundamental frequency of the ninth HBTC1 unit is the highest.
Further studies are conducted on the HBTC1 unit. The unit can form two lattice
structures by different stacking methods, including a top-to-top lattice structure (Figure
3e) and a foot-to-foot lattice structure (Figure 3i). Both of these lattice structures are
modeled by using the commercial software MSC/Patran. In order to ensure the accuracy
of the calculation, a mesh size of 0.5 mm is selected for modeling, as shown in Figure 3f,j.
The boundary conditions of the top-to-top lattice structure are uniformly set to be fully
constrained at the ends of the six long sides, as shown in Figure 3g. The boundary
conditions of the foot-to-foot lattice structure are applied at the junction of the long and
short legs for full constraints, as shown in Figure 3k. Similarly, the same material is chosen
for the two lattice structures. A modal analysis is performed on the finite element model
Materials 2023, 16, 736 8 of 16

of the two lattice structures by using the commercial software MSC/Nastran. The first-
order fundamental frequency of the top-to-top lattice structure is 2374 Hz, and the first-
order fundamental frequency of the foot-to-foot lattice structure is 1607 Hz, as shown in
Figure 3h,l. By comparison, the stability of the top-to-top lattice structure of the HBTC1
unit is better.

Figure 3. Finite element models of bio-inspired ant lattice structure. (a) Bio-inspired ant cellular
structure, (b) finite element model of bio-inspired ant cellular structure, (c) constraints of finite
element model of bio-inspired ant cellular structure, (d) first-order mode shape of bio-inspired ant
cellular structure, (e) the top-to-top lattice structure, (f) finite element model of the top-to-top lattice
structure, (g) constraints of finite element model of the top-to-top lattice structure, (h) first-order
mode shape of the top-to-top lattice structure, (i) the foot-to-foot lattice structure, (j) finite element
model of the foot-to-foot lattice structure, (k) constraints of finite element model of the foot-to-foot
lattice structure, and (l) first-order mode shape of the foot-to-foot lattice structure.

3.3. Manufacture of Bio-inspired Lattice Structure

The top-to-top lattice and the foot-to-foot lattice (size: 40 mm × 40 mm × 40 mm) of
the HBTC1 unit are additively manufactured by using the FS403P platform. In order to
unify the mechanical properties of bio-inspired lattice structures and ensure the
consistency principle of structure comparison, the same parameters are used when the
bio-inspired lattice samples are manufactured by additive manufacturing, and the 3D
printing parameters are recorded, as shown in Table 2. Two samples of the top-to-top
lattice and the foot-to-foot lattice are exhibited in Figure 4.

Table 2. FS403P 3D-printing parameters.

Scanning Jumping
Build Cavity Laser Preheating
Parameters Speed Speed Material
Temperature (°C) Power (W) Temperature (°C)
(mm/s) (mm/s)
Tensile
7.62 169 22 140 2.54 Nylon
sample
Materials 2023, 16, 736 9 of 16

3.4. Experimental Verification

The acceleration test is used to verify the structural stiffness and the accuracy of
simulation results between the top-to-top lattice and the foot-to-foot lattice of the HBTC1
unit. The result of the fundamental frequency is obtained according to the acceleration
test. The two lattices are manufactured by additive manufacturing. The test piece is fixed
on the platform by using four screws on the white adapter, and the micro three-way
sensor is arranged on the side of the test piece with glue to collect the acceleration data, as
exhibited in Figure 4. The first-order fundamental frequencies of the two lattice structures
are determined according to the peak points of the sweep frequency curves, which are
2186 Hz and 1458 Hz, respectively. According to Table 3, the error rates of the simulation
results and the experimental results are 8.0% and 9.2%, respectively. Contrasted with the
simulation result, the reason for the low experimental results may be due to the process
problems of additive manufacturing. The results of both the simulation analysis and the
stiffness experiment show that the stiffness of the top-to-top ant lattice of the HBTC1 unit
is better.

Figure 4. Vibration experiment. (a) The top-to-top lattice, (b) sweeping curve of the top-to-top
lattice, (c) the foot-to-foot lattice, and (d) sweeping curve of the foot-to-foot lattice.

Table 3. Comparison of small-scale characteristic sweep test results and simulation results.

The Top-to-Top The Foot-to-Foot

Lattice Lattice
Low-level vibration test results/Hz 2186 1458
Simulation results/Hz 2374 1607
Error rate 8.0% 9.2%

The compression experiment is carried out on the universal tensile-testing machine

(KQL computer-controlled electronic universal testing machine, Liu, R., Changchun, Jilin,
China) at room temperature (RT). The data on force and displacement during the loading
process are transmitted to the computer from sensors mounted on the testing machine.
Their experimental compression velocity is 1 mm/min.
Materials 2023, 16, 736 10 of 16

Figure 5a depicts the force-displacement curve of nylon material compression for

vibration simulations. It can be seen from the compression results in Figure 5b that the
peak load of the top-to-top lattice is 245.8 N higher than that of the foot-to-foot lattice,
indicating that the top-to-top lattice has extremely high structural stiffness and strength.
In addition, it can be seen in Figure 5c that in the initial deformation stage of the structure,
the foot-to-foot lattice shows a supporting effect in the outward deformation and has a
strong anti-deformation ability, while in Figure 5d, the top-to-top lattice shows a lateral
bending in the deformation and is prone to deformation from the deformation mode.
Therefore, the top-to-top lattice of the HBTC1 unit is selected to fill the solid mixture
structure, and the feasibility of this method is verified.

Figure 5. Compression experiment. (a) Material compression experiment diagram; (b) compression
experiment diagram of two samples; (c) compression process of the top-to-top lattice sample at the
displacement of 0.5 mm, 1 mm, and 1.5 mm; and (d) compression process of the foot-to-foot lattice
sample at the displacement of 0.5 mm, 1 mm, and 1.5 mm.

4. Application of Bio-inspired Lattice Structure in the Support Structure of the

Fengyun-3 Satellite Payload
4.1. The Original Design of the Support Structure
The support structure is designed for connecting the horizontal support and the
vertical support; this connection plays an important role in the design of the Fengyun-3
satellite payload. The upper part of the structure is fixed with vertical support by initiating
explosive devices, and the bottom part is connected with horizontal support by using
screws. The geometric features and dimensions are shown in Figure 6. The thickness of
the upper and bottom parts is 10 mm, and the thickness of the middle part is 10 mm.
The finite element model of the support frame is established, which can be broken
down into 49,315 elements and 13,202 nodes, as shown in Figure 7a. In order to save
computational costs and ensure a high-quality mesh model, these tiny bolt holes are
ignored in the process of building the finite element model. Because the bottom part of
the support structure is connected to the horizontal support, it is assumed that the bottom
part is fixed. The mesh nodes near the position of the screw holes are fully constrained as
the boundary condition, and the concentrated force, F = 20 kN, is applied at the center of
the upper part along the vertical direction. It is assumed that a common aluminum alloy-
7A09 is used to manufacture the support structure. The basic properties of 7A09 are
shown in Table 4. The total mass of the support structure is 5.02 kg. The first-order
fundamental frequency of the structure is 305.3 Hz, obtained through modal analysis.
Materials 2023, 16, 736 11 of 16

Figure 6. The support structure with load and boundary conditions and geometric dimensioning.
(a) Load and boundary condition and (b) geometric dimensioning.

Table 4. Properties of selected aluminum alloy.

Material Aluminum Alloy

Brand 7A09
Young’s modulus (E) 71 GPa
Poisson’s ratio (m) 0.33

Density ( ) 2700 kg/m3

Yield limit 470 MPa

4.2. The Optimal Design of the Support Structure

In order to achieve the goal of lightweight design, a four-step procedure is carried
out to design and optimize the solid-lattice hybrid structure inspired by ants, by
combining topology optimization, bio-inspired lattice structure filling, and size
optimization. First of all, the initial optimization model is obtained through topology
optimization to pursue the optimal material distribution. The model is divided into two
parts: the gray area is the nondesignable area, and the green area is the designable area.
They are illustrated in Figure 7a. A 30% volume fraction constraint is set for optimization,
and the optimization objective is to maximize the fundamental frequency. The topology
optimization result with a symmetry constraint is depicted in Figure 7b. Second, the
model is manually divided according to the distribution of pseudodensity values ( ).
Minimum pseudodensity regions ( ) are removed, low pseudodensity regions (
) are converted into lattice filled parts, and high pseudodensity regions (
) are kept as solid parts. In addition to the distribution of the pseudodensity
value, the influence of the main bearing path should also be considered. At the same time,
in order to convert this optimization result into an actual engineering structure, some
minor details need to be ignored. The reconstructed model, the total mass of which is 4.21
kg, is exhibited in Figure 7c. Subsequently, according to the reconstructed model, a solid-
lattice hybrid model is established, in which four Y-shaped supporting parts are filled
with ant lattices. Finally, size optimization has been carried out to obtain the optimal
Materials 2023, 16, 736 12 of 16

cross-sectional area of the lattice structure under specified loads and constraints. To
ensure that the final design meets the weight requirements, a mass constraint of 4.2 kg is
introduced in the size-optimization problem. The final optimization model of the solid-
lattice hybrid model is illustrated in Figure 7d. The mass of the solid-lattice hybrid model
is 3.43 kg.

Figure 7. Design and optimization process of the solid-lattice hybrid support structure. (a) The finite
element model of the initial design, (b) the topology optimization result, (c) the reconstructed model
of the topology optimization model, and (d) the solid-lattice hybrid optimization model.

4.3. Mechanical Performance Verification of the Solid-Lattice Hybrid Structure

The solid-lattice hybrid FE model is also completed by using the commercial software
MSC/Patran. In order to ensure the accuracy of the calculation, a mesh size of 1 mm is
selected for modeling. The boundary conditions are uniformly set to be fully constrained
at the position of the screw holes, the same as the original design.
The modal analysis of the reconstructed solid-lattice hybrid model is carried out by
using MSC/Nastran. As shown in Figure 8(a1–a3), the first three fundamental frequencies
of the solid-lattice hybrid structure are 290.6 Hz, 291.4 Hz, and 438.3 Hz. Compared with
the initial design model, the mass of the optimized model decreases by 32%, but the first-
order fundamental frequency decreases by only 4.8%. It is proved that this solid-lattice
hybrid structure inspired by ants has excellent stiffness characteristics for a lightweight
structure.
Furthermore, it is necessary to verify the strength of the structure. In order to ensure
the safety of aerospace structures, under the yield limit load conditions, the structural
parts of the products should have a positive safety margin , and is defined
as follows [45]:
Materials 2023, 16, 736 13 of 16

(3)

where represents the yield limit, represents the maximum stress generated by
the identification load, and represents the safety factor, which is generally taken as
1.2.
For the reconstructed solid-lattice hybrid model, a stress analysis is performed under
the prescribed load and boundary conditions to verify the strength of the structure. The
von Mises stress distribution of the reconstructed solid-lattice hybrid model is shown in
Figure 8(b1,b2). The maximum value is 106.8 MPa, occurring at the place where the
concentrated force is applied. The stress distribution of the rest of the structure is uniform,
and the value is small. For the reconstructed solid-lattice hybrid model, the safety margin
, indicating that the reconstructed solid-lattice hybrid structure has good
strength characteristics on the basis of ensuring a lightweight structure. It also proves the
feasibility of this multiscale optimization method, inspired by ants, to ensure that
aerospace structures are lightweight.

Figure 8. Simulation analysis result graph. (a1) First-order mode diagram, (a2) second-order mode
diagram, (a3) third-order mode diagram, (b1) von Mises stress distribution of 3D elements of the
reconstructed solid-lattice hybrid structure, and (b2) von Mises stress distribution of 1D elements
of the reconstructed solid-lattice hybrid structure.

5. Conclusions
In order to further improve the effect of a lightweight structure, this paper proposed
a bionic design method of providing lattice structure filling for the support structure of
the Fengyun-3 satellite payload inspired by ants. In order to realize this bionic design, we
proposed a parameterized design method providing of lattice structure based on an ant-
leg configuration. In order to compare the stiffness and strength performance, a modal
analysis and a stress analysis were carried out on the original design model and the
reconstructed optimization model. The conclusion is summarized as follows:
Materials 2023, 16, 736 14 of 16

(1) In view of the research on the leg configuration characteristics of two classic ants,
namely the Black-gold Turkish Camponotus and the Messor structor, regarding their
static morphology and load-carrying morphology, it can be seen that the HBTC1 cell has
the highest stiffness among the 14 cells, according to the simulation analysis.
(2) The two stacking methods of the HBTC1 cell, namely the top-to-top lattice
structure and the foot-to-foot lattice structure, were simulated and tested. It was found
that the top-to-top lattice structure had better stiffness and anticompressibility, which was
selected to fill the solid mixture structure.
(3) The multiscale optimization method, which combined topology optimization,
bio-inspired lattice structure filling, and size optimization, was applied to the lightweight
design of the support structure of the Fengyun-3 satellite payload. Compared with the
initial design model, the mass of the solid-lattice hybrid optimized model decreased by
32%, but the first-order fundamental frequency decreased by only 4.8%. Meanwhile, the
safety margin of the solid-lattice hybrid optimized model was 2.67, which was greater
than zero. This indicated that the reconstructed solid-lattice hybrid structure had good
stiffness and strength characteristics to ensure a lightweight structure.

Author Contributions: Data collection, H.L. and R.L.; model and analysis, R.X. and H.W.;
validation, H.L.; writing—original draft preparation, R.L. and H.L.; writing—review and editing,
Z.Y. and Z.X. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.
51975246, 11972343); the Science and Technology Development Program of Jilin Province
(YDZJ202101ZYTS134); Jilin Province Science and Technology Research Project (20200404149YY);
the Ascl-zytsxm (202013); the Open Project Program of Key Laboratory for Cross-Scale Micro and
Nano Manufacturing, Ministry of Education, Changchun University of Science and Technology
(CMNM-KF202109); the Interdisciplinary Research Fund for Doctoral Postgraduates of Jilin
University (No.101832020DJX052); and the Interdisciplinary Cultivation Project for Young Teachers
and Students (No. 415010300078).
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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