Tunable nonlinear dynamics of origami inspired mono-stable truss modules

Origami inspired deployable structures are a class of mechanical metamaterials that can achieve tunable properties by exploiting the reconfigurability of origami patterns. These structures have gained significant interest due to their potential to offer innovative solutions in multidisciplinary applications, including vibration isolation, energy harvesting, robotics, and more. While previous studies have extensively explored the geometry, quasistatic mechanics, and dynamic response of thin-shell Kresling origami structures, the dynamic behavior of origami inspired foldable truss structures remains largely unexplored. This research deals with the analytical and numerical analysis of the dynamic behavior of monostable non-prismatic foldable truss (NPFT) modules inspired from origami patterns. First, the analytical expression of the potential energy function is established considering the coupled degree of freedoms of the NPFT modules. A novel simplified analytical approach is presented to analyze the free vibration behavior by obtaining the phase portraits and natural frequencies of the nonlinear NPFT modules. Later, the numerical models are developed to predict the free and forced vibration behavior of the nonlinear dynamic system. It is observed that the natural frequencies and the phase portraits obtained from the analytical model align closely with the corresponding numerical results, validating the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed approach. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the in-situ tunability of the dynamic behavior by examining the natural frequencies and frequency response curves of the nonlinear system considering different geometric design parameters of the NPFT modules. The insights gained from this research provide a valuable guidance to design the innovative structural systems, enabling advancements in vibration isolation and energy harvesting technologies.