The Snap-Back Behavior of A Self-Deploying Cylinder Based On Origami With Kresling Pattern

Proceedings of the IASS-SLTE 2014 Symposium
Shells, Membranes and Spatial Structures: Footprints

15 to 19 September 2014, Brasilia, Brazil
Reyolando M.L.R.F. BRASIL and Ruy M.O. PAULETTI (eds.)
The Snap-back Behavior of a Self-deploying Cylinder Based on

Origami with Kresling Pattern
Jianguo CAI*, Jin ZHANGa, Ya ZHOUa, Jian FENGa
*School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University
Nanjing, 210096, China
Email: caijg_ren@hotmail.com; j.cai@seu.edu.cn
a
School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University
Abstract
The deployment of a cylinder based on origami with Kresling pattern, whose basic mechanisms are formed by
the buckling of a thin cylindrical shell under torsional loading, is studied in this paper. The model consists of
identical triangular panels with cyclic symmetry and has a small displacement internal inextensional mechanism.
Firstly, geometric formulation of the design problem is presented. Then assuming that the deployment and
folding process is uniform, the bistable behavior of the cylinder is discussed. It can be found that, during the
deployment, the dimensionless strain energy increases firstly and then reduces to zero but followed by another
sharp increase. Moreover, the limit condition of geometry parameters for the bistable phenomenon is also
discussed. Finally, the bistable behavior is also studied by using numerical simulations for simple and more
complex case of the cylinder with multistory. The numerical results agree well with the analytical predictions.
Therefore, comparisons with finite element predictions have shown that the analytical solutions given in this
paper are accurate and have validated the assumptions made in the derivations.
Keywords: Origami, deployable structure, bistable behavior, snap-back behavior
1. Introduction
Origami, the Japanese and Chinese traditional paper craft, has been proved as a valuable tool to develop various
engineering applications in numerous fields [1]. Dr. Nojima Taketoshi have developed several patterns, which
ranges from environmentally friendly containers to medical applications, from vehicle parts to new insulation
material configurations, from robotics to education [2].
Deployable structure, a structure that can change its size by changing its shape, is widely used in daily life such
as tents and umbrellas. Current interest in deployable structures arises not only from their potential in space but
also many other areas [3-6]. Several designs of origami structures have been proposed for deployable structures
from around 1970s, such as the Miura-ori, which is a well-known rigid origami structure utilized in the
packaging of deployable solar panels for use in space or in the folding of maps [7]. Miura-ori provides a onedegree of freedom (DOF) mechanism from a developed state to a flat-folded state.
One of the important problems on deployable structure is to fold a cylindrical tube in axial direction to a flat
state, while keeping its axis and internal envelope like a bellow. The best way to understand the background of
this problem is to consider the case of post buckling behavior of a thin cylindrical shell under axial loading. The
most famous folding pattern is the Yoshimura or diamond pattern [8-10]. But during the folding in the axial
direction, significant in-plane stretching occurs for the Yoshimura pattern [11]. Then Guest and Pellegrino
proposed a variation of cylindrical foldable shell by twisting Yoshimura-pattern [12-14]. This model consists of
identical triangular panels on a helical strip and has small-displacement internal inextensional mechanisms.
Tachi and Miura suggested some cylindrical deployable structures in which every element of the surface is
geometrically free of distortion [15-17]. This enables mechanisms with stiff materials that can potentially used to
design repeatedly foldable structures.
Copyright 2014 by the authors.
Published by the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) with permission.

On the other hand, if the thin cylindrical shell is under torsional load, another folding pattern, named Kresling
pattern, was obtained by Kresling[18-20]. He gave a simple experiment in Ref. [20] that a thin-walled sheet is
wrapped around two coaxial mandrels, leaving a gap. When the mandrels are twisted, highly regular folding
pattern appears as shown in Fig.1. Hunt and Ario [21] have studied the twist buckling pattern to consider its
accommodation to fold to a flat diaphragm. The critical and initial post-buckling effects were also investigated
through concepts of energy minimization. It should be noted that the Kresling pattern and the pattern studied by
Guest and Pellegrino [12-14] are similar. For the latter one, triangulated cylinders made from identical triangular
plates arranged on helical strips, a general description can be based on the observation that the nodes of the
triangulated cylinders lie on the intersection of three sets of helices. When one helix becomes several parallel
circles, the Kresling pattern is obtained. In this paper, the geometric design of a cylindrical shell based on the
Kresling pattern is firstly studied. Then the mechanical behavior, especially the bistable behavior, will be
investigated analytically. Furthermore, a numerical study based on ABAQUS will be used to validate the
analytical results.
Figure 1: Kresling pattern of thin cylindrical shells [20]
2. Geometry design of the kresling pattern

When designing the Kresling pattern of a thin cylindrical shell, we start with a flat strip paper as shown in Fig.
2(a). As described by Guest and Pellegrino [12-14], it may have small-displacement internal inextensional
mechanism. Then the fully folded configuration, shown in Fig. 2(b) is selected as geometrical compatibility.
After that, the structure can be deployed to the configuration shown in Fig. 2(c).
Figure 2: The construction process and the deployable process

If the length of the strip l, the height h and the number of the elements n are given, then we need to find the
angles between the diagonal fold lines and the horizontal line and . All the geometric parameters are given in
Fig.3. It should be noted that in this paper every element is identical. That is to say the structure is cyclic
symmetry. Then it can be found the polygon formed by the upper lines or lower lines of the paper strip in the
fully folded configuration is regular polygon.
Figure 4 shows the movement of the fold line between the adjacent elements. The angle 106 can be obtained
as
Copyright 2014 by the author(s).

1'06 2
(1)
The lines 13 and 35, as shown in Fig.5, are two side of the regular polygon formed by the upper lines of the
paper strip. The angle relations can be obtained from Fig.5 as
(2)
1'06 1'30 31'0 1'30 460 1'30 635 1'30 5'36 1'35'
Figure 3: Geometric parameters of the flat paper strip
(a) deployed state

(b) folded state
Figure 4: The movement between the adjacent elements
Figure 5: The sides of the regular polygon formed by the upper lines of the paper strip
Then the angle 135 is
1'35' 2
(3)
The sum of the inner angles of the regular polygon formed by the upper lines of the paper strip can be given as
n 1'35' n 2 n 2
(4)
which leads to
(5)
The length of upper or lower lines of every element is a, which is equal to l/n. As shown in Fig.3, draw a line 2G
from point 2, which is perpendicular to line 14. Assuming the length of line 2G is d, in triangles 12G and 24G, it
can be obtained that
l1G d cot

(6)

l4G a 2 d 2 (l / n)2 d 2
(7)
where l1G and l4G are the lengths of line 1G and 4G.
The area of the triangle 124 can be given as
1
1
a h l2G l14
2
2
Substituting Eqs. (6) and (7) to Eq. (8) leads to
(8)
ah d (d cot a 2 d 2 )
(9)
The length d can be obtained by Eq. (9). Then the angles and can be given as
d
nd
arcsin
a
l
(10)
n 1
nd
arcsin
n
l
(11)
arcsin
--=
3. Snap-back behavior
The movement process and the bistable behavior of the thin cylindrical shell based on Kresling origami are
studied in this section. As shown in Fig.6, during the motion the upper regular polygons formed by the upper
lines AB, BC, CD have a relative rotation, , to the lower regular polygons formed by the lower lines 12, 23,
34 The radius of the circumscribed circle of these two regular polygons, R, is
a
2
R

sin
n
(12)
Figure 6: The relation between two regular polygons formed by the upper and lower lines of the paper strip
Figure 7: The cylindrical shell during the motion


We denote the angle between the line A2 and the horizontal plane is , which is shown in Fig.7, and the height of
the cylindrical shell during the motion is
H b sin
(13)
If the center of the lower regular polygon is the origin of the cylinder coordinate system, points A and 2 have
coordinates (R, , b sin) and (R, 2/n, 0), respectively. Then the distance between A and 2 is given as
b [2 R sin(
2 / n 2
)] (b sin ) 2
2
(14)
The relation between angles and is obtained as
2
b cos
2arcsin
n
2R
(15)
b cos
1
2R
(16)
It can be seen from Eq. (15) that
Substituting Eq. (12) into Eq. (16) leads to
(17)

cos sin
n
If the cylindrical shell must be moved to the fully folded configuration, Eq. (17) becomes
1

sin
n
(18)
The coordinate of point 3 is (R, 4/n, 0), and hence the distance between A and 3 is given as
b cos 2
c [2 R sin( arcsin
)] (b sin ) 2
n
2R
(19)
which leads to
2
2
1
c
b

sin arcsin cos sin sin
a
sin n
n a
a
n
(20)
In the fully folded configuration (=0), Eq. (20) becomes

c
1
b

sin arcsin sin
n

n
a
sin
n
(21)
The relations between the length ratio c/a and b/a of different element numbers are given in Fig. 8. It can be
found that the length ratio c/a increases firstly and then reduces with the increase of the length ratio b/a. It is also
be noted that the highest values of b/a and c/a are identical, which are sqrt(2), 2 and 1/sin(/10) for element
number 4, 6, and 10, respectively. Furthermore, the highest value of b/a and c/a also increases with the increase
of the element number.
Then we will study the elastic strain of the truss model of the cylindrical shell during the motion. In this study,
the lengths a and b are assumed to be constant, i.e. assuming that all strain can be modeled in terms of variable
c only. With these hypotheses, the folding properties of the thin triangulated cylinder can be investigated most
effectively on a plot of c/a versus . A special case with n=6 is considered here. Then Eq. (20) can be written as
2
b
b
2sin arcsin cos sin

a
2a
a

(22)

Figure 8: Plots of c/a against b/a
(a)
(b)
Figure 9: Plots of c/a versus
For simplicity, only the hypothesis of linear elastic strain will be investigated in this analytical approach, which
is defined as
c c0 c / a c0 / a
c0
c0 / a
(23)
where c0 is the length of c at the folded configuration (=0). Then the dimensionless strain energy of unit length
can be defined as:
w
W 1 2

E 2
(24)
where E is Youngs Modulus of the elastic bar.

Figure 9 shows a plot of c/a versus for triangulated cylinders with different values of b/a. The dimensionless
strain energy of unit length w of bar during the motion is given in Fig.10. It can be seen from Fig. 9(a) that for
the case b/a=0.5, the length c decreases with the increase of . That is to say the strain is increasing during the
deployment of the cylinder. It should be noted that any given value c/a in Fig.9 is corresponding to a unique
configuration of the cylinder. The other curve in Fig. 9(a), for the case b/a=1.0, shows similar behavior.
For the curves shown in Fig. 9(b), c/a initially increases with and then, having reached a maximum, starts
decreasing. During the deployment (with the increase of ), the dimensionless strain energy of unit length w
increases firstly and then reduces to zero. After that, it also increases significantly. For the case b/a=1.5, the
cylindrical shell with 2.0616>c/a1.9605 have two different and totally unstrained configurations. That shows
the cylinder is a bistable structure. In particular, c/a=1.9605 gives one configuration in the fully folded state
(=0) and the other one when =1.3039. Figure 9 also gives some special cylinders whose c/a is an analytical
maximal value. For the case b/a=1.5, it occurs when =0.8411 and hence c/a=2.0616. The information for the
cases b/a=1.2, 1.1, 1.01 is also given in Table 1. It can be found that the gap between the upper and lower limit
of c/a, which is corresponding to two totally unstrained configurations, reduces with the decreases of b/a. For the
case b/a=1.01, the gap is 0.00003. Then when decreases to 1.0, the bistable phenomenon disappears. Therefore,


it can be concluded that when the element number n=6, the value b/a of for the cylindrical shell with bistable
behavior should satisfy
1
b
2
a
(25)
(a)
(b)
Figure 10: The dimensionless strain energy of unit length during the motion
Table 1: The typical value of c/a and during the motion
c/a
b/a
With the largest

value of c
With the minimal

energy
With the largest value

of c
With the minimal

energy
1.01
1.1
1.2
1.5
0.1408
0.4296
0.5857
0.8411
0.1996
0.6181
0.857
1.3039
1.73784
1.7916
1.8547
2.0616
1.73781
1.7878
1.8392
1.9605
4. Numerical verification
With the hypothesis that a and b remain constant during the motion, while c varies, preliminary estimates of
strains during the motion are investigated in the previous section. More detailed estimates of strains are available
in this section. The deployment and folding of the cylinder were simulated with nonlinear finite element analysis
calculated with ABAQUS. To compare with the analytical results, the truss elements were used for simplicity.
Moreover, to model the constant value of a and b in the simulation, their Youngs Modulus was defined at least
two orders higher than the one of elastic bars c. To monitor the complete movement path of the cylinder,
displacement control is necessary because of the existence of instability phenomenon. The analysis was carried
out with displacement control, by defining vertical boundary at the nodes of the top polygonal panel and
displacing it with the height of the cylinder with small increments. The nodes of the bottom polygons were
constrained both in the radial direction and in the vertical direction. In this numerical example, b=1500 mm,
a=1000 mm, the area of bar is 393 mm2.
(a)the folded configuration

(b) the deployable configuration
Figure 11: The deployment of one segment

4.1. Deployment process

The initial configuration of the structure is a fully folded shape with =0 when c=1960.4 mm as shown in Fig.11
(a). The displacement applied in the nodes of the top polygonal panel is 1500 mm. The final deployable
configuration is given in Fig.11(b). Furthermore, the energy during the motion is also shown in Fig.12.
Figure 12: The energy during the deployment of one segment

Figure 13: The folding process
It can be seen from Fig. 12 that the shape of the curve is similar as the analytical result given in Fig. 10(b). The
cylinder also has the two unstrained configurations. Except the fully folded configuration, the other one is in the
state when =1.3035, while the analytical result is 1.3039. The highest energy during the bistable phenomenon
occurs when =0.8413, while the analytical result is 0.8411 shown in Table 1. It can be found the analytical
results have good accuracy.
4.2. Folding process
In this section, the folding process of the cylinder is investigated. The state with =1.286 is chosen as the initial
configuration. At this time, the height of the cylinder is 1440 mm. Then the displacement applied in the nodes of
the top polygonal panel is -1440 mm. The folding process is shown in Fig.13. And the initial and final
configurations during the motion are shown in Fig.14.
(a)the initial configuration (b) the flat configuration

Figure 14: The folding process of one segment
The energy during the folding process is given in Fig.15. It can be seen that the cylinder also has the bistable
behavior. This is because the value of c/a is larger than 1.9605. Except the initial configuration with =1.286, the
other one is near the fully folded configuration =0.1484. The highest energy during the folding process occurs
when =0.8412, while the analytical result is 0.8411 shown in Table 1.
The motion of the cylinder with multi segments is also studied. The energy during the motion is similar as that
for the one segment as shown in Fig. 15. The movement of the multistory structure is given in Fig.16.


Figure 15: The energy during the folding process of one segment
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
Figure 16: The folding process of the cylinder with three segments
5. Conclusions
This paper addresses an interesting bistable phenomenon in the axial tension or compression of the thin
cylindrical shell with Kresling pattern. Firstly, the geometry design of this cylinder was investigated. When the
geometry of a paper strip is given, the position of the fold line can be obtained with the formula given in Section
2. Then the mechanical behavior of the cylinder during the motion was studied analytically. It can be found that
the structure has a bistable behavior. For the case with n=6, the bistable phenomenon can only occur when b/a
belongs to (1, 2). Finally, the numerical analysis was used to prove the accuracy of the analytical results.
Moreover, the folding process of the cylinder with multi-segments was also discussed.
In the present case, the bars are assumed to be elastic during the motion. The elasto-plastic behavior of the
cylinder will be investigated in future. Another problem is to deal with the structure with a shell element, which
is very complex and difficult issue.
Acknowledgement
The work presented in this article was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
No. 51308106 and No. 51278116), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No.
BK20130614), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (Grant No.

20130092120018) and a Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher
Education Institutions.
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Shells, Membranes and Spatial Structures: Footprints