Origami Engineering
Course Instructor: Prof. Glaucio Paulino
Team Members: Kiran Golla, Sienna (Xin) Sun, Maria
The state-of-art concepts and algorithms to design and analyze origami structures are explored to create and transform geometries by folding and unfolding, thus exploring various design principles and mechanics of it. In addition, using origami as a tool, we will outreach to some fundamental concepts in differential geometry.
Auxetic Inspired Solar Facade
Auxetic material is a type of material with a negative Poisson ratio. Unlike conventional materials, when an auxetic material is stretched (or compressed) in one direction, it becomes thicker (or thinner) in perpendicular directions. This kinematic character of shrinking and expanding auxetic materials introduces many beneficial effects in an improved built environment, such as enhanced stiffness and improved energy absorption. Inspired by these properties, we propose an optimized facade shading system that utilizes the auxetic characters to introduce natural light responding to different use scenarios.
Starting from a basic square pattern, triangular and p31m patterns are chosen to observe the opening to closed ratio. The square having only one degree of freedom, the other two patterns have more than one degree which allows for them to form interesting patterns. p31m is the only non-rigid pattern as it fails to operate when fabricated using cardboard.
Choice of Materials
Chipboard connected with rotary hinges.
The rigidity of the chipboard panel enables a “monostable” auxetic structure, which allows a “continuous, planar (or spatial), one degree of freedom motion (Bottema and Roth 1979)”. The overall area of the entire auxetic structure increases when it is expanded.
Composite materials comprised one layer of matboard and one layer of rubber.
Both rubber and matboard have a certain degree of bendability. Rather than changing the scale of the entire planar surface, this “soft, bendable” character provides the dynamic expansion and snapping opportunity within the pattern.
A 2D pattern for all three types is drawn with unit cells identified. These models are made developable by adding details and designing the joinery.
The assembly of the designed modules is shown at various stages of the movement.
Final modeling, showing the patterns
The Auxetic patterns, square and triangle showed the light through the expansion and shade of the panel with compression in the room (box).
Photographs for the exhibits