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Unpublished Paper
Geometric Mechanics of Curved Crease Origami
Physical Review Letters (2012)
  • Marcelo A. Dias
  • Levi H. Dudte
  • L. Mahadevan
  • Christian Santangelo
Abstract

Folding a sheet of paper along a curve can lead to structures seen in decorative art and utilitarian packing boxes. Here we present a theory for the simplest such structure: an annular circular strip that is folded along a central circular curve to form a three-dimensional buckled structure driven by geometrical frustration. We quantify this shape in terms of the radius of the circle, the dihedral angle of the fold, and the mechanical properties of the sheet of paper and the fold itself. When the sheet is isometrically deformed everywhere except along the fold itself, stiff folds result in creases with constant curvature and oscillatory torsion. However, relatively softer folds inherit the broken symmetry of the buckled shape with oscillatory curvature and torsion. Our asymptotic analysis of the isometrically deformed state is corroborated by numerical simulations that allow us to generalize our analysis to study structures with multiple curved creases.

Disciplines
Publication Date
2012
Comments
Prepublished version downloaded from ArXiv. Published version is located at http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.114301
Citation Information
Marcelo A. Dias, Levi H. Dudte, L. Mahadevan and Christian Santangelo. "Geometric Mechanics of Curved Crease Origami" Physical Review Letters (2012)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/christian_santangelo/18/