Tunable Wave Dynamics in Origami-Based Mechanical Metamaterials

We investigate unique wave dynamics in origami-based mechanical metamaterials composed of volumetric 3D origami unit cells. Specifically, we assemble a chain of lattice structures, in which the Tachi-Miura Polyhedron (TMP) is employed as a building block. We conduct two types of theoretical/computational analysis on this origami-based system. One is the dynamic analysis on the TMP unit cell under harmonic excitations. We find that the system transits from linear to nonlinear regimes or vice versa, depending on the amplitude of the excitation and the initial configurations of the given geometry. This implies that the origami-based system exhibits intrinsic tun-ability of its dynamic behavior by altering these excitation and geometrical parameters. The other analysis is on a dispersion relationship of mechanical waves propagating through the lattice. We analyze a 1D chain of (i) all identical TMP unit cells and (ii) two different unit cells in an alternating arrangement. From this analysis, we show that the origami-based system can create tunable frequency band structures by changing geometrical parameters. By leveraging these unique, tunable wave dynamics, the origami-based mechanical systems have great potential to be used as novel engineering devices that are capable of handling vibrations and impact efficiently.