An Approximately Isotropic Origami Honeycomb Structure and Its Energy Absorption Behaviors

Honeycomb structures have a wide range of applications owing to their light weight and promising energy absorption features. However, a conventional honeycomb structure is designed to absorb impact energy only in the out-of-plane direction and demonstrates unsatisfactory performance when the impact energy originates from a different direction. In this study, we proposed an origami honeycomb structure with the aim of providing an approximately isotropic energy absorption performance. The structure was created by folding a conventional honeycomb structure based on the Miura origami pattern, and it was investigated using both numerical and experimental approaches. Investigations of the structural behaviors under both out-of-plane and in-plane compressions were conducted, and the results revealed significantly different deformation modes in comparison with those of a conventional honeycomb structure. To determine the influences of geometries, we conducted a series of numerical studies, considering various structural parameters, and analyzed the response surface of the mean stress in three directions. Based on the numerical and experimental results, a parameter indicating the approximate isotropy of the origami honeycomb structure was introduced. The proposed structure is promising for absorbing energy from any direction and has potential applications in future metamaterial design work.