Design and optimization of kirigami-inspired rotational parabolic deployable structures

Abstract

Deployable structures designed through diverse methodologies have become crucial in contemporary engineering applications. Despite their distinct advantages, the exploration of kirigami techniques for designing parabolic deployable structures remains nascent. In this study, we explored the potential of kirigami for developing a parabolic deployable structure with a large deployment ratio and few degrees of freedom. According to the plane-symmetric kirigami pattern endowed with thickness, two distinctive deployable structural configurations were introduced. Based on these configurations, a geometric model and corresponding optimization method were proposed. A rigorous analysis was conducted to examine the effects of the array number and array row number on the deployment ratio. Finally, the deployment ability of the designed parabolic deployable structure and the surface morphology of the paraboloid were evaluated through computational simulations and prototype manufacturing. The results indicated that the kirigami-inspired deployable structure had an excellent deployment ability and closeness to the aimed paraboloid. This study provides an innovative methodology for designing curved deployable structures for engineering applications.