A highly-compressible, torsion-contraction coupling and self-transforming cylindrical bi-material metastructure

Metamaterials are special artificially-designed structures with extraordinary physical properties. Among them, origami-inspired metamaterials have shown considerable potential in the application of intelligent materials. In this paper, the torsional creases of the Kresling-pattern were embedded into the internal structure of the sheet to construct the origami mechanical metamaterial, in order to induce the super compressibility and torsion-contraction coupling effect (TCE). Shape memory polymer was used to perform the crease, so that the origami metamaterial has the mechanical bistable state of folding and deployment, as well as self-transformation characteristics of thermal-response. The subunit (single-level) origami metamaterial can be extended to multi-level structures, which can be promising novel prototypes of mechanical masts or actuators. The TCE of origami metamaterials can be adjusted by changing the crease and the number or pattern of the levels. The folding-deployment performance and TCE of the origami metamaterial were simulated using the finite element method. Furthermore, the effects of structure parameters and temperature on folding and deployment were also discussed. The results offer a great guidance for the design and application of smart materials and structures.