Fabrication and mechanical behaviors of carbon fiber reinforced composite foldcore based on curved-crease origami

Abstract

A carbon fiber-reinforced composite foldcore based on curved-crease origami was designed and fabricated using a hot press molding method. The fabrication process based on curved-crease origami reduces the abrupt change in fiber direction and is more suitable for continuous fiber-reinforced composites. The analytical models based on differential and integral method for predicting the compressive stiffness and strength of curved-crease origami foldcores were developed first and a three-dimensional failure mechanism map was constructed. The compressive properties and failure modes of carbon fiber reinforced composite curved-crease origami foldcores were investigated through experiments and finite element analysis (FEA). A reasonable agreement among the analytical models, experiments, and FEA results was observed. The dominant failure mode in the curved-crease origami foldcores could change from buckling to crushing with the wall thickness of foldcores increasing when subjected to compressive loads. The novel curved-crease origami design with open core channels has potential to applications for lightweight multifunctional structures, such as fuselage panels of airplane.