Langner
Origami, the art of folding paper born in Japan centuries ago, could open a new border in the field of innovative materials, thanks to research carried out at the University of Michigan.
As an art, the origami uses simple folding techniques to create complex patterns. Today, researchers are studying this technique to make it the foundation of the next generation of materials that deform and “bend” predictably under the effect of the appropriate forces. These materials could be used in a large number of applications, including racing shoes, heart stents and plane wings.
« Origami has been the subject of great attention in the past decade due to its ability to deploy or transform structures “Commented James Mcinerney, principal author of the new study, who carried out work as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan. Mr. Mcinerney is now a research partner of the National Research Council at the Air Force Research Laboratory.
« Our team wondered how different types of folds could be used to control how a material deforms when different forces and pressures are applied to it ».
Mcinerney and his colleagues have introduced a new way to model folds in order to better understand how they can control the properties of a material, which is a falsely complicated problem.
In principle, the idea is similar to the way in which a crumpled piece of cardboard folds more predictable than a virgin piece which could deform in any way in the effect of the pressure. By introducing folds, researchers can therefore adjust the way materials react to force. The applications of this type of control are large, according to Mr. Mcinerney.
“There are a whole series of scenarios ranging from the design of buildings, planes and warships to the packaging and shipping of goods, where we tend to find a compromise between improving load capacities and the increase in total weight,” said Mr. Mcinerney. “Our final goal is to improve bearing conceptions by adding folds inspired by origami, without adding weight”.
Recently published in Nature Communications, the study also includes Zeb Rocklin, Doctoral Advisor to Mr. Mcinerney at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Xiaoming Mao, professor of physics at the University of Michigan, Glaucio Paulino of the Princeton and Diego Misseroni University of the University of Thirty.
In general, this origami is an example of “metamaterials”, that is to say engineering materials whose new properties are obtained by programming the structure rather than chemical ingredients, “said Mr. Mao. “” The geometry of the folding, simple to perform in practice, gives a piece of paper of completely new properties. Although flat materials, such as paper sheets, are quite easy to conceptualize, their behavior under the effect of the force is complex. »
« If I pull on one ends of a sheet of paper, it is solid, it does not separate “Said Zeb Rocklin, associate professor of physics at Georgia Tech. “” But it is also flexible. It can offend and wave depending on how I move it. It is a very different behavior from that which can be observed in a conventional solid, and very useful ».
-The introduction of folds can “program” the materials so that they behave in a certain way, but to determine how and when doing these folds is a challenge, even for modern physics.
« With these materials, it is often difficult to predict what will happen – how the material will deform under the effect of pressure, because it can deform in many different ways “Said Mr. Rocklin. “” Conventional physical techniques cannot solve this type of problem, which is why we continue to find new ways of characterizing structures in the 21st century. »
When they study the materials inspired by origami, physicists start from a flat leaf which they fold carefully to create a specific three -dimensional shape. But this method is limited. Until now, researchers have only modeled the folding based on the parallelogram, which uses shapes such as squares and rectangles, which allows limited types of deformation.
Rocklin, Mcinerney and their colleagues turned to the trapezoids, who have only one set of parallel sides. The introduction of these more variable forms makes this type of rustling more difficult to model, but more versatile.
« Our models and physical tests allowed us to see that the trapezoidal faces arouse reactions of a completely different nature “Explains Mr. Mcinerney. And these responses lead to new features, he added.
The models had the capacity to change their form of two distinct ways: the ” respiration By dilating and contracting regularly, and the “shear” by distorting itself in a torsion movement.
Surprisingly, the team also noted that part of the bell -based part of the parallelograms was found in trapezoidal origami, which suggests that certain characteristics could be universal in all models.
« Although our research is theoretical, these results could give us more possibilities of deployment and use of these structures », a conclu M. Rocklin. « This is a very difficult problem, but biology and nature are full of intelligent solids, including our own body, which deforms in a specific and useful way in case of need. This is what we try to reproduce with origami ».
Legend Illustration: Research carried out at the University of Michigan made it possible to model the way in which different origami structures made up of trapezoidal subunits (i) reacted to constraints such as compression (ii) and stretching (iii). Image credit: adapted from JP Mcinerney et al. Nat. Common. 2025, DOI: 10.1038/S41467-025-57089-X (used under license CC-by-NND 4.0)
Article : « Coarse-grained fundamental forms for characterizing isometries of trapezoid-based origami metamaterials » – DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57089-x
