Origami embedded honeycomb with three-axial comparable and improved energy absorption performance

Abstract

Origami has been exploited to various marvelous materials to manifest mechanical properties. In this study, inspired by the distinctive deformation modes of kresling-origami with rotation limitation, a design strategy of embedding kresling-origami into conventional honeycomb for improving energy absorption capacity is proposed. According to different embedding approaches, i.e., replacing or adding cell walls, two types of origami-embedded honeycombs are constructed. To investigate the energy absorption properties of proposed origami-embedded honeycombs, 3D-printed specimens are manufactured and tested under quasi-static compression. The experiment results show that proposed origami-embedded honeycomb have higher specific energy absorption and three-axial comparable energy absorption performance relative to conventional ones. It indicates the design strategy of embedding kresling-origami is practical for improving energy absorption capacity of conventional honeycomb and weakening its anisotropy. In addition, the energy absorption performance of origami-embedded honeycombs with different geometrical configurations is investigated through an established and experimentally validated numerical simulation model. Furthermore, the mechanism (i.e., high energy-absorbing deformation modes of kresling-origami under boundary constraints) of embedding design strategy is clarified via comparison analysis between experiments and simulations. This strategy carves out a novel way to optimize the mechanical properties of honeycomb and may inspire new innovations of metamaterials.