Experimental verification of the bistable behavior of conical Kresling origami

Abstract

Origami-inspired structures have attracted various multidisciplinary applications in the field of science and technology. Among these, the classical Kresling origami pattern has been widely exploited for its bistable behavior. However, the experimental investigation and verification of the bistability phenomenon of non-prismatic Kresling origami pattern has not been presented in the literature. This study focuses on the mathematical and experimental investigations of the bistable behavior of the conical Kresling pattern. The paper utilizes a mathematical investigation based on the energy approach to develop qualitative and quantitative stability maps for conical Kresling structures while considering the conicity of the structure with respective design parameters of the conical Kresling pattern. A systematic experimental methodology is introduced to investigate the quasistatic behavior of conical Kresling structures under applied vertical displacement, followed by the experimental characterization of the restoring force behavior considering different design parameters. Moreover, the bistability points obtained from experimental investigations are verified with mathematically developed bistability maps.