Zigzag-base Folded Sheet Cellular Mechanical Metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel class of lightweight, tunable cellular mechanical metamaterials inspired by origami, specifically by dislocating zigzag strips in the Miura-ori pattern, preserving its properties while enabling new design possibilities.

Contribution

It proposes a new design of origami-inspired metamaterials by dislocating zigzag strips, creating lightweight structures with tunable properties and potential for diverse applications.

Findings

Lightweight due to holes in the pattern

Preserves and tunes Miura-ori properties

Suitable for various modifications

Abstract

The Japanese art of turning flat sheets into 3D intricate structures, origami, has inspired design of mechanical metamaterials. Mechanical metamaterials are artificially engineered materials with uncommon properties. Miura-ori is a remarkable origami folding pattern with metamaterial properties and a wide range of applications. In this study, by dislocating the zigzag strips of a Miura-ori pattern along the joining ridges, we create a class of one-degree of freedom (DOF) cellular mechanical metamaterials. The resulting configurations are based on a unit cell in which two zigzag strips surround a hole with a parallelogram cross section. We show that dislocating zigzag strips of the Miura-ori along the joining ridges, preserves and/or tunes the outstanding properties of the Miura-ori. The introduced materials are lighter than their corresponding Miura-ori sheets due to the presence of holes in the patterns. Moreover, they are amenable to similar modifications available for Miura-ori which make them appropriate for a wide range of applications.