Motion Analysis of a Foldable Barrel Vault Based on Regular and Irregular Yoshimura Origami

Abstract

This paper investigates the geometry of a foldable barrel vault with Yoshimura Origami patterns during the motion. On the base of the geometry analysis of the origami unit, the radius, span, rise, and longitudinal length of the foldable barrel vault with regular Yoshimura Origami pattern in all configurations throughout the motion are determined. The results show that the radius of curvature and the span increase during deployment. But the rise increases first, followed by a decrease with increasing fold angle. Furthermore, the influence of the apex angle of the origami unit and the numbers of triangular plates in the span direction on the geometric parameters is also investigated. Finally, the method to obtain the rise and span of the barrel vault with irregular origami pattern is also given.