New Deployable Structures Based on an Elastic Origami Model

Abstract

Traditionally, origami-based structures are designed on the premise of “rigid folding,” However, every act of folding and unfolding is accompanied by elastic deformations in real structures. This study focuses on these elastic deformations in order to expand origami into a new method of designing morphing structures. The authors start by proposing a simple model for evaluating elastic deformation in nonrigid origami structures. Next, these methods are applied to deployable plate models. Initial strain is introduced into the elastic parts as actuators for deployment. Finally, by using the finite element method (FEM), it is confirmed that the proposed system can accomplish the complete deployment in 3 × 3 Miura-or model.