A New design of deployable pedestrian bridge deck based on origami theory

Abstract

As one of the basic civil engineering structures, bridges greatly impact people’s daily life. However, many bridge accidents are caused by boat crashes because of the driver’s carelessness or other climatic and hydrological factors. Besides, some pedestrian bridges are not frequently used and thus make a waste of water space. This design will overcome the challenge and tackle the problem successfully based on the origami and kirigami theory by using a connector composed of a slider and a revolute joint. The bridge can be folded up and down via a particular folding method. The basic structure units have two degrees of freedom (DOF). The whole mechanism can be folded and unfolded by sliding and rotating the connector. According to the structural folding position analysis results shown in the diagrams, the new deployable bridge deck structure design can validly tackle the problems of clearance limitation under the bridge via the special-designed cross-section of the bridge deck. I hope the design model will be widely applied in the river-crossing bridge and bring convenience to all pedestrians and boat drivers.