View article

A novel type of shell structure was analysed, folded shell structures. These shell structures have a distinct structural hierarchy: globally they can be regarded as thin-walled shells, but at a meso scale they consist of tessellated unit cells, which in turn are composed of thin-walled shells joined at distinct fold lines. It is this structural hierarchy that imbues the folded shell structures with their interesting mechanical properties. The global sheet deformations are a combination of bending along the folds, and deformation of the interlying material. The former is primarily a kinematic problem, with a parallel in the flexibility of hinged plate structures. A review of the mathematics of rigid origami provides the necessary background to develop non-trivial geometries of these folded shells that still exhibit a soft deformation mode.

Two example folded shell structures are introduced, the Miura and Eggbox sheet. Both consist of a …