Energy Landscape and Stability of Origami-Inspired Deployable Structures

科学家、数学家和工程师们对将折纸艺术从折纸艺术转变为创新的工程设计产生了浓厚的兴趣，以利用其独特的特性来创建具有可调特性的可展开结构。为了充分利用折纸的示范能力，部署，有两个基本的力学问题，需要彻底研究，即，变形和稳定性部署折纸结构。在这方面，该奖项支持基础研究，以调查折纸结构的能量景观，并研究可变形折纸结构的稳定性。对上述问题的成功调查将使折纸术应用于更广泛的应用，从航空航天和民用的可展开结构，植入式医疗设备，日常必需品和玩具。因此，本研究将推动折纸科学与工程的进步，进而促进国民健康、繁荣与福祉。除了研究活动，教育和推广计划旨在使广泛的群体受益，从K-12学生通过与当地学区和科学中心的合作，本科生通过大学研究计划，研究生通过先进的教学和研究。可部署性一直是研究折纸结构的主要动机之一。有一些努力，以了解机制的部署过程中使用折纸作为灵感。然而，展开的结构的稳定性还没有被研究，并且，如在文献中所报道的，展开的折纸结构可能沿着展开路径沿着塌陷。具体来说，它将重点关注部署和折叠流程应该采取两种不同路径的想法。一个通用的和强大的有限元平台将被开发来研究可变形的折纸图案的能量景观，并调查折纸结构的各种稳定性现象，包括：可调，多稳定，和可调多稳定状态。从能量景观/稳定性研究中获得的平台和知识也将用于通过各种折纸结构的异质集成来创建新的折纸启发的超材料，这些材料具有可调的可部署性和可扩展性，从一维管状结构，二维板，和3D结构。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过利用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Scientists, mathematicians, and engineers are leading a vigorous interest to transform origami from the art of paper folding to innovative engineering design for harnessing its unique properties to create deployable structures with tunable properties. To fully harness origami's exemplar capabilities in deployment, there are two fundamental mechanics problems that need to be thoroughly studied, namely, deformation and stability of deployed origami structures. In this regard, this award supports fundamental research to investigate the energy landscapes of origami structures and to study the stability of the deformable origami structures. Successful investigations of the above problems will bring origami to be used in much broader applications, ranging from deployable structures for aerospace and civil applications, implantable medical devices, daily essentials, and toys. As a result, this research will promote the progress of the science and engineering of origami, and advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare. In addition to the research activities, the education and outreach programs aim to benefit a broad range of groups, from K-12 students through partnership with the local school district and science center and undergraduates through a university research initiative to graduate students through advanced teaching and research.Deployability has been one of the main motivations to study origami structures. There are some efforts to understand the mechanisms for the deploying process using paper folding as inspiration. However, the stability of the deployed structure has not been studied yet and, as reported in the literature, a deployed origami structure can potentially collapse along the deploying path. This research attempts to fill this gap by studying the stability of deformable origami structures. Specifically, it will focus on the idea that deploying and collapsing processes should take two different paths. A versatile and robust finite element platform will be developed to study the energy landscape of deformable origami patterns and investigate various stability phenomena of origami structures, including: bistable, multi-stable, and tunable multi-stable states. The platform and knowledge gained from the energy landscape/stability study will also be used to create new origami-inspired metamaterials with tunable deployability and collapsibility through heterogeneous integration of various origami structures, ranging from 1D tubular structures, 2D plates, and 3D structures.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.