Multistable curved-crease origami structures: Going beyond traditional straight-crease origami to design shells that snap

In recent years, origami, the art of folding paper, has inspired the design of engineering structures that are deployable, manufacturable, tunable, and reprogrammable. Commonly, the folds are straight lines, and the panels are flat. However, curved-crease origami is also possible, in which shell folds along curves and panels bend, which provides additional design freedom while adding geometric and mechanical complexity. 

In this talk, I will present an introduction to the differential geometry of curved-crease origami and present a general design method inspired by curved-crease origami for multistable curved shells. Then, I will present numerical results that describe how geometric parameters affect mechanical behaviour, and conclude with some potential applications across a variety of length scales.