Search Results (5)

Space exploration and satellite communication demand lightweight, large-scale, and highly deployable structures. Inspired by the folding mechanism of frilled lizards and origami mechanisms, this study explores a deployable structure based on the single-vertex multi-crease origami (SVMCO) concept. The design focuses on crease distribution optimization to enhance deployment efficiency. A mathematical model analyzes the relationship between sector angles of three types of facets and structural performances, providing guidelines for achieving optimal deployment. Drawing from the rib patterns of frilled lizards, a rib support system for thick-panel mechanisms was designed and verified through a physical prototype. The structure achieves smooth-surface deployment with fewer supports, offering a lightweight and efficient solution for deployable systems. Full article

Origami-based membrane structures have shown great potential to revolutionize the construction of deployable and lightweight space structures in the future. However, the efficient unfolding mechanism puts forward major challenges to the practical realization of space-deployable structures. Here, a smart grid-reinforced membrane origami (SGRMO) is presented. The unfolding action hinges upon the application of forces facilitated by shape memory polymer composites (SMPCs). Subsequent locking action ensues through the restoration of the initial rigidity, accomplished via cooling mechanisms. This novel structure achieves the required lightweight and functionality by employing the grid design concept and effectively reduces the decline in unfolding extent caused by irreversible plastic deformation at the crease. Its recovery properties, including unfolding angle, distance, and surface precision, are experimentally and analytically investigated under different conditions. The results indicate that the structure can be reliably unfolded into the predefined shapes. In the case of Miura-SGRMO, the optimal surface precision is attained when the angle-ψ registers at 30°. The results of this study are expected to serve as the design of ultra-large flexible solar arrays and deployable antenna structures. Full article

Cylindrical Kresling origami structures are often used in engineering fields due to their axial stretchability, tunable stiffness, and bistability, while their radial closability is rarely mentioned to date. This feature enables a valvelike function, which inspired this study to develop a new origami-based valve. With the unique one-piece structure of origami, the valve requires fewer parts, which can improve its tightness and reduce the cleaning process. These advantages meet the requirements of sanitary valves used in industries such as the pharmaceutical industry. This paper summarizes the geometric definition of the Kresling pattern as developed in previous studies and reveals the similarity of its twisting motion to the widely utilized iris valves. Through this analogy, the Kresling structure’s closability and geometric conditions are characterized. To facilitate the operation of the valve, we optimize the existing structure and create a new crease pattern, RC-ori. This novel design enables an entirely closed state without twisting. In addition, a simplified modeling method is proposed in this paper for the non-rigid foldable cylindrical origami. The relationship between the open area and the unfolded length of the RC-ori structure is explored based on the modeling method with a comparison with nonlinear FEA simulations. Not only limited to valves, the new crease pattern could also be applied to microreactors, drug carriers, samplers, and foldable furniture. Full article

Thin-walled tubes are widely used as energy-absorbing components in traffic vehicles, which can absorb part of the energy in time by using the plastic deformation of the components during collision so as to reduce the damage of the vehicle body and improve the overall safety and reliability of traffic vehicles. The prefolded design of thin-walled tube components can guide it to achieve the ideal energy dissipation performance according to the preset damage path, so the related research based on origami tubes has attracted a lot of attention. Since the geometry of the origami tubes is controlled by many parameters and stress and deformation is a complex nonlinear damage process, most of the previous studies adopted the method of case analysis to carry out numerical simulation and experimental verification of the relevant influence parameters. This paper makes a new exploration of this kind of problem and focuses on solving the related technical problems in three aspects: 1. The automatic model modeling and 3D display based on parameters are proposed; 2. System integration using Python programming to automatically generate the data files of ABAQUS for finite element simulation was realized, and we sorted the finite element analysis results into an artificial intelligence analysis data set; 3. Clustering analysis of the energy consumption history of the data set is carried out using a machine learning algorithm, and the key design parameters that affect the energy consumption history are studied in depth. The sensitivity of the energy absorption performance of the origami tubes with multi-morphology patterns to the crease spacing is studied, and it is shown that the concave–convex crease spacing distribution with a distance larger than 18 mm could be used to activate specific crushing modes. In the optimal case, its initial peak force is reduced by $66.6\%$ compared to uniformly spaced creases, while the average crushing force is essentially the same. Furthermore, this paper finds a new path to optimizing the design of parameters for origami tubes including a multi-morphology origami pattern from the perspective of energy dissipation. Full article

Structure/material requires simultaneous consideration of both its design and manufacturing processes to dramatically enhance its manufacturability, assembly and maintainability. In this work, a novel design framework for structural/material with a desired mechanical performance and compelling topological design properties achieved using origami techniques is presented. The framework comprises four procedures, including topological design, unfold, reduction manufacturing, and fold. The topological design method, i.e., the solid isotropic material penalization (SIMP) method, serves to optimize the structure in order to achieve the preferred mechanical characteristics, and the origami technique is exploited to allow the structure to be rapidly and easily fabricated. Topological design and unfold procedures can be conveniently completed in a computer; then, reduction manufacturing, i.e., cutting, is performed to remove materials from the unfolded flat plate; the final structure is obtained by folding out the plate from the previous procedure. A series of cantilevers, consisting of origami parallel creases and Miura-ori (usually regarded as a metamaterial) and made of paperboard, are designed with the least weight and the required stiffness by using the proposed framework. The findings here furnish an alternative design framework for engineering structures that could be better than the 3D-printing technique, especially for large structures made of thin metal materials. Full article