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Abstract Origami has great potential for creating deployable structures, however, most studies have focused on their static or kinematic features, while the complex and yet important dynamic behaviors of the origami deployment process have remained largely unexplored. In this research, we construct a dynamic model of a Miura origami sheet that captures the combined panel inertial and flexibility effects, which are otherwise ignored in rigid folding kinematic models but are critical in describing the dynamics of origami deployment. Results show that by considering these effects, the dynamic deployment behavior would substantially deviate from a nominal kinematic unfolding path. Additionally, the pattern geometries influence the effective structural stiffness, and it is shown that subtle changes can result in qualitatively different dynamic deployment behaviors. These differences are due to the multistability of the Miura origami sheet, where the structure may snap between its stable equilibria during the transient deployment process. Lastly, we show that varying the deployment rate can affect the dynamic deployment configuration. These observations are original and these phenomena have not and cannot be derived using traditional approaches. The tools and outcomes developed from this research enable a deeper understanding of the physics behind origami deployment that will pave the way for better designs of origami-based deployable structures, as well as extend our fundamental knowledge and expand our comfort zone beyond current practice. 

Origami designs have attracted significant attention from researchers seeking to develop new types of deployable structures due to their ability to undergo large and complex yet predictable shape changes. The Kresling pattern, which is based on a natural accumulation of folds and creases during the twistbuckling of a thin-walled cylinder, offers a great example for the design of deployable systems that expand uniaxially into tubes or booms. However, much remains to be understood regarding the characteristics of Kresling-based deployable systems, and their dynamics during the deployment process remain largely unexplored. Hence this research investigates the deployment of Kresling origami-inspired structures, employing a full sixdegree- of-freedom truss-based model to study their dynamics under different conditions. Results show that tuning the initial rotation angle of a structure gives rise to several qualitatively distinct mechanical properties and stability characteristics, each of which has different implications for the design of the deployable systems. Dynamic analyses reveal the robustness of Kresling structures to out-of-axis perturbations while remaining compliant in the axial direction. These findings suggest that Kresling-based designs can form the basis for the development of new types of deployable structures and systems with tunable performance.