Abstract
Origami-inspired structures and materials have shown remarkable properties and performances originating from the intricate geometries of folding. Origami folding could be a dynamic process and origami structures could possess rich dynamic characteristics under external excitations. However, the current state of dynamics of origami has mostly focused on the dynamics of a single cell. This research has performed numerical simulations on multi-stable dual-cell series Miura-Ori structures with different types of inter-cell connections based on a dynamic model that does not neglect in-plane mass. We introduce a concept of equivalent constraint stiffness k* to distinguish different types of inter-cell connections. Results of numerical simulations reveal the multi-stable dual-cell structure will exhibit a variety of complex nonlinear dynamic responses with the increasing of connection stiffness because of the deeper energy well it has. The connection stiffness has a strong effect on the steady-state dynamic responses under different excitation amplitudes and a variety of initial conditions. This effect makes us able to adjust the dynamic behaviors of dual-cell series Miura-Ori structure to our needs in a complex environment. Furthermore, the results of this research could provide us a theoretical basis for the dynamics of origami folding and serve as guidelines for designing dynamic applications of origami metastructures and metamaterials.