Residual Stress‐Driven Non‐Euclidean Morphing in Origami Structures

Abstract

Morphing origami has numerous potential engineering applications owing to its intrinsic morphing features from 2D planes to 3D surfaces. However, the current 1D hinge deformation‐driven transformation of foldable origami with rigid or slightly deformable panels cannot achieve a 3D complex and large curvilinear morphing. Moreover, most active origami structures use thin hinges with soft materials on their creases, thus resulting in a lower load capability. This study proposes a novel origami morphing method demonstrating large free‐form surface morphing, such as Euclidean to non‐Euclidean surface morphing with shape‐locking. Tensorial anisotropic stress in origami panels is embedded during the extrusion‐based 3D printing of shape memory polymers. The extrusion‐based 3D printing of isotropic SMPs can produce tensorial anisotropic stress in origami panels during fabrication, which can realize significant non‐Euclidean surface morphing with multiple deformation modes. The connecting topology of the origami unit cells influences the global morphing behavior owing to the interaction of the deformation of adjacent panels. Non‐Euclidean morphing integrated with 4D printing can provide multimodal shape locking at material and structural levels.