Origami-Based Bistable Metastructures for Low-Frequency Vibration Control

Abstract In this research, we aim to combine origami units with vibration-filtering metastructures. By employing the bistable origami structure as resonant unit cells, we propose metastructures with low-frequency vibration isolation ability. The geometrical nonlinearity of the origami building block is harnessed for the adjustable stiffness of the metastructure’s resonant unit. The quantitative relationship between the overall stiffness and geometric parameter of the origami unit is revealed through the potential energy analysis. Both static and dynamic experiments are conducted on the bistable origami cell and the constructed beam-like metastructure to verify the adjustable stiffness and the tunable vibration isolation zone, respectively. Finally, a two-dimensional (2D) plate-like metastructure is designed and numerically studied for the control of different vibration modes. The proposed origami-based metastructures can be potentially useful in various engineering applications where structures with vibration isolation abilities are appreciated.