Smart Kirigami open honeycombs in shape changing actuation and dynamics

Kirigami is the ancient Japanese art of cutting and folding paper, widespread in Asia since the 17th century. Kirigami offers a broader set of geometries and topologies than classical fold/valleys Origami, because of the presence of cuts. Moreover, Kirigami can be readily applied to a large set of composite and smart 2D materials, and can be used to up-scaled productions with modular molding. We describe the manufacturing and testing of a topology of Kirigami cellular structures defined as Open Honeycombs. Open Honeycombs (OHs) can assume fully closed shape and be alike classical hexagonal centresymmetric honeycombs, or can vary their morphology by tuning the opening angle and rotational stiffness of the folds. We show the performance of experimental PEEK OHs with cable actuation and morphing shape characteristics, and the analogous morphing behavior of styrene SMPs under combined mechanical and thermal loading. We also show the dynamic (modal analysis) behavior of OHs configurations parameterized against their geometry characteristics, and the controllable modal density characteristics that one could obtain by tuning the topology and folding properties.

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