Abstract

Origami — the ancient art of paper folding — has been widely adopted as a design and fabrication framework for many engineering applications, including multi-functional structures, deployable spacecraft, and architected materials. These applications typically involve complex and dynamic deformations in the origami facets, necessitating high-fidelity models to better simulate folding-induced mechanics and dynamics. This paper presents the formulation and validation of such a new model based on the Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation (ANCF), which exploits the tessellated nature of origami and describes it as an assembly of flexible panels rotating around springy creases. To estimate the crease folding, we mathematically formulate a “torsional spring connector” in the framework of ANCF and apply it to the crease nodes, where the facets meshed by ANCF plate elements are interconnected. We simulate the dynamic folding of a Miura-ori unit cell and compare the results with commercial finite element software (ABAQUS) to validate the modeling accuracy. The ANCF model can converge using significantly fewer elements than ABAQUS without sacrificing accuracy. Therefore, this high-fidelity model can help deepen our knowledge of folding-induced mechanics and dynamics, broadening the appeals of origami in science and engineering.

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