Dynamic unfolding process of origami tessellations

Abstract

Origami structures have attracted considerable attention from engineering and science fields, and a variety of numerical methods have been proposed for analysis of this kind of structure. Most of the origami-related numerical studies focus on the static or quasi-static analysis of the folding process. However, the dynamic unfolding of origami triggered by the energy stored in the creases could provide us more insight about the origami intrinsic properties. In this study, we propose a dynamic analysis framework in which the particle-bar-spring model and finite particle method are combined. The proposed method can be used in the dynamic analysis of general origami structures, regardless of whether the structure is rigid or non-rigid, and regardless of whether the structure has a single degree of freedom (DOF) or multiple DOFs. The dynamic unfolding process of a simple origami fold, a six-crease waterbomb tube pattern, a Miura pattern, and a quadrangular Resch pattern are simulated and analyzed. The energy analysis of the four patterns helps to verify the correctness of the proposed method and provides the details for how different energies transform into each other during the unfolding process. The dynamic unfolding analysis reveals the global dynamic response and free unfolding trajectories of these origami structures, which have never been presented by previous numerical analysis.