TY - JOUR
T1 - Unflat-foldable Square-Twist origami composite structure with bistable load-bearing capability
AU - Wang, Lichen
AU - Chen, Zhitao
AU - Song, Weili
AU - Zhao, Zeang
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2025/1/15
Y1 - 2025/1/15
N2 - Origami structures have attracted much attention owing to their ability to transform from flat structures to three-dimensional structures by folding, and their rich mechanical properties are of critical importance in engineering applications. Square-Twist (S-T) origami structures have typical torsional bistability mechanical characteristics, which have special applications in fields such as mechanical metamaterials and deployable antennas. However, the current research on S-T origami structures is limited to flat-foldable geometry conditions, resulting in a restricted space for their mechanical design. This work is orientated towards high load-bearing origami structures to generate modified S-T (M-S-T) origami designs and unlock their unflat-foldable geometric conditions. Bistable M-S-T origami composite structures consisting of Al2O3 sheet as the rigid facet, PET sheet as the facet to provide additional bending degree of freedom, and glass-fibre reinforced PET-based tape as the elastic crease are fabricated, where the corresponding structures with unflat-foldable properties are found to possess high out-of-plane load carrying capacity in the folded stable state through experiments and finite element analyses. A non-rigid origami theoretical model for the M-S-T origami structure discretised with rigid facets and torsion springs is established. Combined with the theoretical model, the key geometrical parameters' influence on the mechanical properties of the M-S-T origami structure is revealed, and a method is established to determine the real folded stable state of unflat-foldable M-S-T origami structures by combining total energy and contact distance. The design phase diagram for the composite origami structure with bistable unflat-foldable property is described. The bistable high load-bearing M-S-T origami composite structure proposed in this work features consistent load-bearing direction and deformation direction, easy transport and stable load-bearing state, which paves the way for the load-bearing origami structure to better serve the engineering.
AB - Origami structures have attracted much attention owing to their ability to transform from flat structures to three-dimensional structures by folding, and their rich mechanical properties are of critical importance in engineering applications. Square-Twist (S-T) origami structures have typical torsional bistability mechanical characteristics, which have special applications in fields such as mechanical metamaterials and deployable antennas. However, the current research on S-T origami structures is limited to flat-foldable geometry conditions, resulting in a restricted space for their mechanical design. This work is orientated towards high load-bearing origami structures to generate modified S-T (M-S-T) origami designs and unlock their unflat-foldable geometric conditions. Bistable M-S-T origami composite structures consisting of Al2O3 sheet as the rigid facet, PET sheet as the facet to provide additional bending degree of freedom, and glass-fibre reinforced PET-based tape as the elastic crease are fabricated, where the corresponding structures with unflat-foldable properties are found to possess high out-of-plane load carrying capacity in the folded stable state through experiments and finite element analyses. A non-rigid origami theoretical model for the M-S-T origami structure discretised with rigid facets and torsion springs is established. Combined with the theoretical model, the key geometrical parameters' influence on the mechanical properties of the M-S-T origami structure is revealed, and a method is established to determine the real folded stable state of unflat-foldable M-S-T origami structures by combining total energy and contact distance. The design phase diagram for the composite origami structure with bistable unflat-foldable property is described. The bistable high load-bearing M-S-T origami composite structure proposed in this work features consistent load-bearing direction and deformation direction, easy transport and stable load-bearing state, which paves the way for the load-bearing origami structure to better serve the engineering.
KW - Bistable
KW - Load-bearing capacity
KW - Origami structure
KW - Out-of-plane compression
KW - Square-Twist origami
KW - Unflat-foldable
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85214339918&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2025.109936
DO - 10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2025.109936
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85214339918
SN - 0020-7403
VL - 286
JO - International Journal of Mechanical Sciences
JF - International Journal of Mechanical Sciences
M1 - 109936
ER -