Origami Tessellations

Mechanical Behavior of the Miura Structure

Origami tessellations have always amazed me, and this week I spent some time looking into this idea of "Structural Expressionism," our main theme for this summer semester studio. I began my exploration by watching several youtube videos on how to construct these things... and it was much harder than I thought. But I finally got the hang of it and this is what I made:

I wanted to investigate the mechanical properties of these tessellations and try to apply it to an architectural project. The structural properties are still being tested... In the meantime, I have found some research on these applications already...
"The core idea of my 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. My specific area of interest is using tessellated folding patterns, inspired by the Japanese art of Origami folding, to introduce the new mechanical properties. 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. 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."