Modeling And Simulation Of a Continious Folding Process Of An Origami Pattern

The engineering applications of origami has gathered tremendous attention in recent years. Various aspects of origami have different characteristics based on its application. The shape changing aspect is used in areas where size is a constraint. The structural rigidity aspect is utilized where strength is needed with a minimal increase in weight. When polymer or metal sheets are processed to have origami creases, they exhibit an improvement in mechanical properties. The sheets which create a specific local texture by means of tessellated folds patterns are called folded textured sheets[1]. These sheets are utilized to create fold cores. These light-weight sandwiched structures are heavily used in the aerospace industry, due to its ability to prevent moisture accumulation on the aeronautical structures at higher altitudes. The objective of the current research is to explore a new method for the continuous production of these folded textured sheets. The method uses a laser etching setup to mark the sheet with the origami pattern. The pattern is then formed by dies and passes through a conveyor system which is specifically arranged like a funnel to complete the final stage of the forming process. A simulation approach is utilized to evaluate the method. Results show the feasibility of the process along with its limitations. The design is made to be feasible for scaling up for large scale manufactur

Shapes of hydrophobic thick membranes

We introduce and study the behavior of a tethered membrane of non-zero thickness embedded in three dimensions subject to an effective self-attraction induced by hydrophobicity arising from the tendency to minimize the area exposed to a solvent. The phase behavior and the nature of the folded conformations are found to be quite distinct in the small and large solvent size regimes. We demonstrate spontaneous symmetry-breaking with the membrane folding along a preferential axis, when the solvent molecules are small compared to the membrane thickness. For large solvent molecule size, a local crinkling mechanism effectively shields the membrane from the solvent, even in relatively flat conformations. We discuss the binding/unbinding transition of a membrane to a wall that serves to shield the membrane from the solvent.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, to appear in EP

Autonomous Deployment of a Solar Panel Using an Elastic Origami and Distributed Shape Memory Polymer Actuators

Deployable mechanical systems such as space solar panels rely on the intricate stowage of passive modules, and sophisticated deployment using a network of motorized actuators. As a result, a significant portion of the stowed mass and volume are occupied by these support systems. An autonomous solar panel array deployed using the inherent material behavior remains elusive. In this work, we develop an autonomous self-deploying solar panel array that is programmed to activate in response to changes in the surrounding temperature. We study an elastic "flasher" origami sheet embedded in a circle of scissor mechanisms, both printed with shape memory polymers. The scissor mechanisms are optimized to provide the maximum expansion ratio while delivering the necessary force for deployment. The origami sheet is also optimized to carry the maximum number of solar panels given space constraints. We show how the folding of the "flasher" origami exhibits a bifurcation behavior resulting in either a cone or disk shape both numerically and in experiments. A folding strategy is devised to avoid the undesired cone shape. The resulting design is entirely 3D printed, achieves an expansion ratio of 1000% in under 40 seconds, and shows excellent agreement with simulation prediction both in the stowed and deployed configurations.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure