Folded Shell Structures

Mark Schenk (ms652@cam.ac.uk) & Dr Simon Guest Advanced Structures Group, Cambridge University Engineering Department

Introduction 1
In engineering, shell structures are structures where the material thickness is very small compared to the structures overall dimensions. Their use is widespread, and ranges from plastic drinks bottles, to aircraft fuselages and building faades. A novel application of shell structures is in morphing structures, which are designed to alter their global shape to meet new requirements. Existing materials cannot provide the necessary mechanical properties for these applications; paradoxically, the material needs to be stiff in certain, but flexible in other deformation modes. In our research we aim to develop novel materials for these morphing shell structures, using folded textured sheets.

Figure 1 - inspired by the way birds adapt their wings during flight, morphing aircraft wings are an active area of research and provide a potential application for folded textured sheets.

2 Folded Textured Sheets

The core idea of our research is to impart new mechanical properties to thin-walled sheets by introducing a local texture (such as corrugations, dimples, folds, etc.) that affects the global mechanical properties. Our specific area of interest is using tessellated folding patterns, inspired by the Japanese art of Origami folding, to introduce the new mechanical properties.

Figure 2 - an example folded textured , the Miura sheet.

Mechanical Properties 3
The folded sheets possess novel and very interesting mechanical properties. The folds allow relatively large global deformations of the sheets, whilst still providing improved bending stiffness. Furthermore, the folds enable the sheets to be deformed into configurations unobtainable with regular shells: folded sheets with an initially zero global Gaussian curvature (i.e. a globally flat sheet) can be transformed into saddle-shaped or spherical configurations (respectively a negative or positive Gaussian curvature).

Figure 3 - the Miura sheet can easily be bent or twisted into a saddle-shaped configuration.

4 Analysis
In order to understand their mechanical behaviour, the folded sheets are modelled as pin-jointed frameworks, with additional bending stiffness along the fold lines and across the facets. The eigenmodes of the associated tangent stiffness matrix then provide insight in the global deformation kinematics of the sheet. In ongoing work we are trying to capture the unique behaviour of the sheets in an equivalent continuum mechanics model.

Conclusions 5
By introducing a folded texture pattern to thin sheets, a novel sheet material has been created, with unique mechanical properties. Their combination of flexibility in some, and rigidity in other deformation modes, makes these folded textured sheets very suitable for use in morphing structures. Additionally, these novel folded textured sheets may also find applications in architecture or micromechanical systems.

Figure 4 - the saddle-shaped deformation mode of the pin-jointed framework model.

MMIX - MS

Advanced Structures Group Laboratory