Nonlinear dynamics of coupled waves in Kresling origami metamaterials

Abstract

Origami metamaterials have received significant attention due to their attractive kinematic and mechanical properties, design flexibility, reconfigurability. Origami metamaterials have found widespread applications in various engineering fields such as soft robotics, vibration control and deployable structure. In this work, the unique nonlinear tension-torsion coupling motion of Kresling origami is used to investigate the unusual wave phenomena under large deformation. The weakly nonlinear dynamics of the coupling stiffness of Kresling origami metamaterial is theoretically studied based on the truss model of origami. The method of multiple scales is used to derive the first-order theoretical solutions for a semi-infinite system. Due to the nonlinear coupling stiffness the sum frequency and difference frequency components of the coupled waves in the lower mode and higher mode are generated and verified numerically. A prototype constructed through origami is fabricated. Experiments are carried out to illustrate the sum frequency and difference frequency components of the coupled waves. The experimental results demonstrate special frequency components arising from nonlinear coupling stiffness effects. This work can provide new insights into the origami wave dynamics and has potential applications in elastic wave functional devices with unique properties.