Exactly solvable flat-foldable quadrilateral origami tilings

TL;DR

This paper uses exactly solvable models to analyze phase transitions and defect tunability in quadrilateral origami tilings, revealing how defect density influences material properties and the potential for tunable metamaterials.

Contribution

It introduces an exact analytical framework for studying phase transitions and defect effects in flat-foldable origami tilings, including the Miura-ori pattern, using models like the 8-vertex and 3-coloring problems.

Findings

Crease-reversal defects maintain flat-foldability and induce phase transitions.

Defect density correlates with elastic modulus and tunability of the material.

Miura-ori exhibits greater density tunability compared to Barreto's Mars.

Abstract

We consider several quadrilateral origami tilings, including the Miura-ori crease pattern, allowing for crease-reversal defects above the ground state which maintain local flat-foldability. Using exactly solvable models, we show that these origami tilings can have phase transitions as a function of crease state variables, as a function of the arrangement of creases around vertices, and as a function of local layer orderings of neighboring faces. We use the exactly solved cases of the staggered odd 8-vertex model as well as Baxter's exactly solved 3-coloring problem on the square lattice to study these origami tilings. By treating the crease-reversal defects as a lattice gas, we find exact analytic expressions for their density, which is directly related to the origami material's elastic modulus. The density and phase transition analysis has implications for the use of these origami tilings as tunable metamaterials; our analysis shows that Miura-ori's density is more tunable than Barreto's Mars, for example. We also find that there is a broader range of tunability as a function of the density of layering defects compared to as a function of the density of crease order defects before the phase transition point is reached; material and mechanical properties that depend on local layer ordering properties will have a greater amount of tunability. The defect density of Barreto's Mars, on the other hand, can be increased until saturation without passing through a phase transition point. We further consider relaxing the requirement of local flat-foldability by mapping to a solvable case of the 16-vertex model, demonstrating a different phase transition point for this case.